By Kerry E. Porter
WEST ORANGE — “We play six games straight before we can have a bye week and have one of the toughest schedules in the state,” said West Orange High School head football coach Darnell Grant after guiding his Mountaineers past vaunted rival East Orange Campus High School 34-13 in their annual “Battle of the Oranges: East vs. West” on Friday night, Sept. 25.
West Orange was riding a 13-7 win over Grant’s former team, the Shabazz Bulldogs, and a 19-0 win over Irvington, where he got his start as a head coach at his alma mater. “We’re battle-tested after losing to Ramapo 13-12 in the Mountaineer Classic back in Week 0”
East Orange Campus, on the other hand, had lost their first game at home to Piscataway 26-20 in Week 0 and has since defeated Bloomfield and Union City on the road with a combined score of 68-41, before going into a bye week and finishing their three-game road trip at West Orange.
Friday’s game at Joe Suriano Stadium had all the pre-nor’easter pageantry, as it was Senior Night for the Mountaineers. Led by senior quarterback Daniel Lewis and senior tight end/defensive end Sydney Padilla, the game was far in their control early in the second quarter, consuming the clock and keeping East Orange’s potent offensive attack off the field for most of the first quarter.
East Orange only had one series and was forced to punt. The Mountaineers drove 52 yards in 12 plays and scored with 11:54 remaining in the second quarter with junior running back Dy-Shawn Simpkins doing the honors from 3 yards out for the 7-0 score. East Orange would lose its next opportunity to respond when senior RB Sean Smith fumbled the ball on an 8-yard run. The ball bounced backwards 4 yards in the pile up, before West Orange would come up with it on the East Orange 24-yard line. Lewis would make the East Orange defense pay by throwing a 24-yard bullet to junior wide receiver Evian Mishoe with 11:31 remaining in the first half to go up 14-0 after the extra-point kick.
East Orange would counter with a sustained drive starting from its 31-yard line. East Orange responded in kind with a 16-play, 69-yard march, led by senior QB Zach Concepcion, and the junior WR corps of Je’zi Lewis, Musa Wittingburg and Donavan Ottey-Campbell, along with senior RBs Jaleel Halsey and Smith. Smith would run it in from a yard out to close the gap at 14-6 after the failed extra-point kick.
West Orange’s Lewis only needed four plays and 51 yards to push the lead up comfortably. He would find Mishoe twice for a first down and missed on a pass to senior WR Nasir Doughty on the next play. But on the fourth play, Lewis would find himself scrambling with East Orange’s defense, led by senior defensive end Esa Wittingburg. Lewis was running out of real estate and fast. “I saw that I had to find a way to keep the play alive and their defense was all focused on me, so I just threw it to Sydney,” said Lewis. Padilla, who is a Rutgers commit, was wide open for the 38-yard strike, in which he simply walked into the end zone unscathed for the 21-6 lead with 2:04 remaining in the first half.
Padilla wasn’t finished, not by a long shot. With East Orange on offense, Padilla was creating havoc from his defensive end position most of the game. He would hawk down Concepcion for a sack and forced a fumble, with senior linebacker Antwan Chitty scooping the ball for a 30-yard touchdown return with 1:44 remaining and a 27-6 lead. East Orange senior defensive back Eric Williams would thwart another passing touchdown to end the half.
East Orange came out with motivation in the third quarter to turn things around. Concepcion would marshal his squad 68 yards in nine plays, finding Lewis for a 24-yard connection 7:22 left in the third quarter to pull within 27-13. The game was already chippy, where it saw 10 offsetting penalties, as the officiating crew had their hands full with these two squads. The Mountaineers and Jaguars would trade punts for the remainder of the third quarter. But the Mountaineers were threatening to score again early in the fourth quarter, when East Orange was hit with an unnecessary roughness penalty, putting the Mountaineers just inside the 6-yard line, when East Orange was able to come up with a Simpkins fumble to stop the impending score. But that wasn’t enough, as the Mountaineers would find a way to force a turnover on downs with 8:38 remaining in the contest. Setting up shop on the East Orange 15-yard line Lewis, junior RB Tyreon Spruell and the Jaguars made quick work of the short field position, with Lewis drawing the final punch from a yard to put the game out of reach and prevent East Orange from rallying, after Concepcion threw late interception that was picked off by junior LB Isidro Jenkins Tucker to seal the Jaguars’ fate.
“I thought we were prepared for tonight’s game,” said East Orange head coach John Jacob to his team after the game. “I thought we did everything we had to do to get you prepared and that’s not your fault. I will take this one. But we are home next week and we will do everything to get back to our way of playing football.”
East Orange will celebrate their seniors on Saturday against Livingston at 1 p.m.
West Orange will finish its brutal six-game stretch against Bloomfield at Foley Field in Bloomfield on Friday evening at 6 p.m. West Orange will have a bye week before taking the trip to School Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 17, to face Barringer. Then they will close out the regular season with Montclair coming to visit on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m.
East Orange will face Montclair on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Woodman Field in Montclair, before a two-game homestand against Irvington on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Newark Central on Saturday, Oct. 24, with all kickoff times at 1 p.m. East Orange will conclude the regular season against Barringer for their annual Thanksgiving Day clash at Newark School Stadium at 10:30 a.m.
Photos by Kerry E. Porter
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