The scoreboard behind the Paul Robeson Stadium end zone seemingly indicated that East Orange delivered a performance worthy of high price on Friday night against Bloomfield.
Esa Wittingburg and his teammates chose to give themselves a far harsher critique of its fifth-straight win to start the season - a 34-6 victory over Bloomfield in East Orange.
It was the first points East Orange (5-0) has allowed in a season that has seen the Jaguars overwhelm its competition by a 186-6 margin.
“Honestly, I feel like we could have played way better. We did not play our best game this game,“ the Jaguars star defensive end said. ”It’s not even about them getting a touchdown, that had nothing to do with the level that we played at. I feel like we have to minimize mistakes and once we get that down, stop making mistakes, stop allowing them to get first downs. We’re going to play our best game.”
Considering this version of East Orange forced four turnovers and outside of a second quarter touchdown, allowed just one first down its a reminder of what the Jaguars can do when it’s playing at less than peak performance.
Leading 13-6 at halftime, East Orange came out of the extended intermission looking more like the team it wants to be.
After forcing a 3-and-out on defense, East Orange marched down the field for a 16-play, 73-yard drive capped off by Zachary Concepcion’s 2-yard TD run.
Both teams traded turnovers before East Orange put the game away when Concepcion hit Alex Hanks for a 28-yard TD pass with 8:29 remaining in the game.
Robert Minter’s interception set up a 9-yard TD run for Jaleel Halsey that capped off the scoring.
“I was really proud of the way the kids recalibrated after the first half and just played a lot cleaner,” East Orange head coach John Jacob said. “The second half, we were a lot more sound.”
Despite East Orange, starting with the ball at its own 40 or better on five of six first half possessions, the Jaguars only had TD runs by Shaler Jackson III and Tyshawn Sewell to show for it.
Sewell’s 1-yard TD, set up by Wittingburg’s strip sack and fumble recovery, made it 13-0 just 46 seconds into the second quarter.
Bloomfield (4-2) answered with a 14-play, 65-yard drive in which Bengals QB Jeremy Tejada ran the ball nine times for 47 yards and Tayler Guerrero finished with a 7-yard TD run.
After that, Bloomfield had just 45 yards of offense and just one first down.
As a team, the Bengals could muster just 105 yards on the night with Abdoul Kafando and Hanks, both recovering fumbles and Ali Abdur-Rahman recording two sacks.
“I’m not going to lie, I was so mad,” said Hanks, a Temple commit. “We couldn’t let them score again.”
“We pride ourselves in not letting the opponent score, not allowing them to have any hope that they could beat us,” Wittingburg said.
Halsey ran for 70 yards on eight second half carries, after Sewell (24-for-119 rushing) left the game with an injury.
Despite a resilient and gritty Bloomfield defensive effort led by Makai Douglas’ two sacks, East Orange totaled 318 yards on the night, 204 of them coming in the second half.
One season removed from a 10-3 record and a NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 championship East Orange has its eyes firmly set on even greater goals, most notably, a state title.
“We’re shooting to go all the way to MetLife,” said Wittingburg. “So things like this letting the opponent score on us, letting them, have any chance of thinking they can win. Honestly, we’re not happy about that.”
Hanks knows that such ambition requires being a tough critic, rather than merely being satisfied with another win over a local rival.
So even as though Hanks gave his group a good grade overall, the senior doesn’t seem ready to hang it on the refridgerator to admire anytime soon.
“There’s room for improvement,” Hanks said when asked about giving a grade on the night. “I could say an A. It should be an A+.”
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