The East Orange Campus Jaguars, wearing the white jerseys, are shown competing during the road win over Union City on Sept. 11. (Photo Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter)
WEST ORANGE — One of the area’s biggest rivalries will be renewed when the West Orange High School football team hosts East Orange Campus High School on Friday, Sept. 25, at WOHS’ Joe Suriano Stadium in a Super Football Conference–Freedom White Division game. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
The teams met in the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state championship game in 2024, with No. 4 seed East Orange pulling off a 13-7 win over the No. 2 seed Mountaineers at Suriano Stadium. West Orange avenged that loss with a 14-13 victory in last year’s divisional game at WOHS.
The head coach for EOCHS is John Jacob, the former WOHS head coach who is in his fifth year at the East Orange helm.
The Mountaineers are coming off an impressive 13-6 win over Shabazz on Friday, Sept. 18, at Shabazz Stadium for their third win in a row to improve to 3-1. They came into the game having posted consecutive shutout wins over Livingston and Irvington. WOHS head coach Darnell Grant was the previous head coach at Shabazz, where he led the Newark school to two state sectional championships.
In the win over Shabazz, senior quarterback Daniel Lewis threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to senior Sydney Padilla for a 7-0 lead. After Shabazz scored a TD to cut it to 7-6 in the second quarter, WOHS sophomore Noah McKinney kicked a 32-yard field goal to increase the lead to 10-6. McKinney added a 27-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Shabazz, which fell to 2-1, was ranked No. 10 in the state by nj.com going into the game, while WOHS was unranked.
East Orange was idle last week. They are 2-1, winning their last two games against Bloomfield and Union City, both on the road.
East Orange Campus (2-1)
Aug. 29: loss, vs. Piscataway, 26-20
Sept. 4: win, at Bloomfield, 36-12
Sept. 11: win, at Union City, 33-29
Sept. 25: at West Orange, 7 p.m.
Oct. 2: vs. Livingston, 7 p.m.
Oct. 10: at Montclair, 1 p.m.
Oct. 17: vs. Irvington, 1 p.m.
Oct. 24: vs. Newark Central, 1 p.m.
Nov. 26: at Barringer, 10:30 a.m.
West Orange (3-1)
Aug. 27: loss, vs. Ramapo, 13-12.
Sept. 4: win, vs. Livingston, 48-0
Sept. 10: win, at Irvington, 19-0
Sept. 18: win, at Shabazz, 13-6
Sept. 25: vs. East Orange Campus, 7 p.m.
Oct. 2: at Bloomfield, 6 p.m.
Oct. 17: at Barringer, 1 p.m.
Oct. 23: vs. Montclair, 7 p.m.
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