BUTLER — On Saturday, Naz Oliver will gather together with his family and bury his grandmother. On Friday night, the Shabazz head football coach gathered with his football family and won a championship.
Oliver, in his first season at Shabazz, saw the Bulldogs navigate numerous transfers and late season uncertainty into a 40-13 win over Butler in Friday's North 2, Group 1 sectional final.
"It means everything," Oliver said. "We've been through so much. We know all of the doubters slept on us all year but that as the season went on, nobody could beat us. We've proven that now."
Shabazz scored on its second drive with a 7-yard touchdown run by Bi'Shay Sanders on the final play of the first quarter. A two-point conversion gave Shabazz an 8-0 lead after one quarter. Shabazz kept the pressure on offensively as Zairean McDonald's 36-yard touchdown run made it a 14-0 lead with exactly eight minutes left before halftime.
In the second half, Butler came flying out the gate with a methodical drive down the field. Matt Barile capped the drive off with a 1-yard touchdown run. The extra point was short, but pulled the lead to within 14-6. However, that's as close as Butler would get. Daveion Porter's 52-yard touchdown run gave Shabazz a 20-6 lead after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Butler struck one more time with a Bobby Battipede touchdown pass to PJ Coffey and trailed 20-13 with 11:24 to go. However, Shabazz put the game out of reach.
Running clock late, Nazir Smith surprised the Butler defense with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Nyad Walker, growing the lead to 26-13. As Butler tried to answer, an interception led to a short field and a 4-yard Rahmir Jackson touchdown run. McDonald added a 72-yard touchdown run late to put the game out of reach.
What it means
Shabazz began the season 1-2 as a lot of new pieces found their places. Oliver, a standout at St. Peter's Prep, had eight players transfer from his alma mater in the offseason. Not only did they sit out, but the team as a whole had to gel together.
"There was a lot of individualism when we first came together," Oliver said. "We had guys who were selfish and we went through adversity. The losses turned this team into what it is. The wins were great, but the losses were what we really held on to."
The result came with Shabazz's first sectional title since going undefeated in 2017. All of this success for the Bulldogs after being on the bubble of the Group 1 playoff picture entering their season finale against Glen Ridge.
Shabazz won to stay in the playoff picture and then took a sectional title as the No. 6 seed in the bracket. The Bulldogs, along with West Morris, are the lowest seeds to win sectional championships in the state.
"We were out of the playoffs after Week 9," Oliver said. "We were preparing for Butler in the first round [as a No. 8 seed], so seeing them in the final meant we were already ready for this game."
Butler's season ends with a 9-2 record as one of the NJIC's top teams. One regular season loss kept the Bulldogs out of the NJIC playoffs, but gave them a top seed in the North 2, Group 1 bracket. Butler finishes the season with at least nine wins for the first time since 2018, when they won 10 games and played for a regional title at MetLife Stadium.
Controversial calls
While the scoreboard shows a convincing win by Shabazz, a few controversial calls loomed large over the game.
Following Shabazz's touchdown to end the first quarter, a bad snap on the extra point attempt forced Shabazz to throw for a two-point conversion. The pass was hauled in by freshman Karriem Coston in the end zone, but there was a problem: Coston was the long snapper on the play. With jersey No. 10, complaints by the Butler sideline did not force a reversal by officials.
"I was given no explanation as to how that two-point conversion stood," Butler coach Jason Luciani said. "Literally every person in the stadium saw the snapper wearing an ineligible number and catching a forward pass in the end zone with other ineligible numbers around him."
Porter's long touchdown run near the end of the third quarter also came with some controversy. Porter was spun around on the play near the 25-yard line, but never marked down by officials. Players on the field stopped when a whistle was heard on the Butler sideline, but officials suggested the whistle did not come from any of them.
Those two plays in particular resulted in eight Shabazz points to go along with other calls throughout the game that Butler players and coaches disagreed with. The frustration on the Butler sideline was clear throughout Friday's championship game.
"I don't like to criticize officials. I don't want this to come across as sour grapes. We like to think of ourselves as a disciplined football team that doesn't make mistakes," Luciani said. "We have been that all season and now we are in the state final and now we are being told we are making these mistakes we haven't made all year. It's a tough pill to swallow and it's hard to be told you've done something wrong when you haven't."
Up next
Shabazz will head to Mountain Lakes for next week's Group 1 state semifinals.
The Herd won Friday's North 1, Group 1 sectional final, defeating Hawthorne, 35-14. Mountain Lakes competed reached last season's Group 1 championship game at Rutgers, falling to Woodbury.
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