WEST ORANGE, NJ – When a football team plays well on defense, generates a top ground game on offense, and gets strong leadership from its veteran players, good results usually follow.
This fall, that was the story for the West Orange High School varsity football team, coached by Jim Matsakis. The Mountaineers overcame a 1-3 start to the season and produced a respectable 6-4 record highlighted by five straight wins heading into the state playoffs. West Orange, coming off a disappointing 3-7 campaign in 2015, gave a lackluster effort in its playoff loss to powerful Ridgewood, but that was really the only poor performance this autumn.
“I’m really proud of the effort our kids gave,” said Matsakis, whose team shared the inaugural North Jersey Super Football Conference-Liberty Blue Division title with Montclair this season. “Our goals going into the season were to win a conference title, make the state playoffs, and win a state championship. I guess two-out-of-three isn’t all that bad. Down the road, I think we can win a state title. We have some quality kids in our football program, and they want to be successful.”
Like a year ago, the Mountaineers started off slowly. But just like in 2015, West Orange finished very strong. A 42-14 road decision over Morristown in early October started the turnaround. Then came wins over Barringer, Montclair, Livingston and East Orange.
“The 29-26 victory over Montclair was the key to our season,” said Matsakis, who has had coaching success at several schools. “They always have a top-notch program. I thought that they could knock off Ridgewood in the semifinal round of the North Jersey Section 1, Group 5 state playoffs.” However, the Bergen County team prevailed.
A year ago, West Orange allowed 31 points per game. This year, that number dropped by 10 points. Senior linebackers Mike Osuji and C.J. Onyechi led the charge for the Mountaineer defense.
Other top performers for the squad in 2016 included junior C.J. Wilson, junior Sebastian Rawls, sophomore quarterback Sal Paschall, senior Nathan Ferguson and senior Dael Ceneus.
Turnovers hurt West Orange early in the season, but things did change down the stretch.
Osuji, called “a beast on the field” by his admiring coach, aided the team at both linebacker and running back. Heck, against East Orange, he rushed for more than 150 yards in the first quarter.
But in that home affair on Nov. 5, the youngster tore his ACL. That was a severe blow for West Orange to take.
“Mike is one of the best kids I’ve ever coached,” remarked Matsakis. “He always displayed a great work ethic. A lot of people in this sport don’t have that quality, and you have to have that if you want to be a top performer.”
Onyechi, who will play his college ball at Rutgers, did some amazing things on the field for West Orange. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder scored touchdowns in five different ways.
“He really knows how to play the game,” said Matsakis, who would like to renew a town rivalry with Seton Hall Prep. “The kid could have gone to a school like Harvard or Princeton. He’s very smart, to say the least.”
Onyechi, who could be a prize recruit for Rutgers, always came through in the big games as he showed great quickness on the field. Against Livingston on the road in late October, all the senior did was come up with 16 tackles and three sacks to pace a 35-12 victory.
Rawls was another quality linebacker for West Orange. He made some big tackles and is expected to lead the team in 2017. Ceneus, at defensive end and offensive guard, and Ferguson, at nose guard, were also key players.
Paschall came on at the QB spot, while Wilson was another quality kid on offense at running back.
“Wilson isn’t big, but he explodes out of the backfield,” said the coach. “When he gets in the clear, it’s lights out.”
The following WOHS players have earned All-North Jersey Super Football Conference-Liberty Blue Division honors:
First Team: CJ Oneychi, Michael Osuji, CJ Wilson, Dael Ceneus, Nate Ferguson, Renitho Philemon, and Devin White.
Second Team: Frank DeAngelis, L’trell Bradley, Vincent Desantis, Noah Tandy, Sebastian Rawls, and Jasson Massay.
WOHS’ regular-season losses came against Union City, Irvington, and Bloomfield. The first win came against Columbia.
Ridgewood won the North 1, Group 5 title with a 14-13 victory over Passaic County Tech at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 4.
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