E. Orange 20-14 Mo. Knolls

East Orange Off To First Final
After Edging Morris Knolls

Story By Steve Tober For sidelinechatter.com

Highlights By Coach Carchietta For MCHSS.net

EAST ORANGE - In his four years as the East OrangeCampus head football coach Marion Bell has been knocking on the door while making the playoffs each and every season at the helm.

Now, he wants to see his team kick the door wide open.

Buoyed by two impressive second-half drives, one of which followed a turnover and was turned into a subsequent game-winning touchdown march, the Jaguars earned a first-ever trip to the playoff championship game with a pulsating 20-14 semifinal victory over Morris Knolls on Friday night before 2,000 fans at Paul Robeson Stadium.

“It feels real good and I’m proud of my coaches, who have spent so much time preparing for each game, and, of course, for the kids, who worked so hard and persevered,” said Bell. “Yeah, we’ve been knocking on that door and we certainly want to kick it in by winning a championship in two weeks!”

East Orange (10-1) will meet Saturday’s Ridgewood-Montclair winner in the North 1, Group 4 final, probably at Giants Stadium the weekend of Nov. 30-Dec. 2.

In a game where Jaguar standouts such as sophomore quarterback Quadir Pendleton, wide out Akeem Cunningham and wide receiver-safety Carlo Thomas all made big plays, it started out as a case where Morris Knolls was dominating on the ground for the game’s first half.

In fact, the Golden Eagles’ Kellan Cardio couldn’t believe how wide the alleys were that his Morris Knolls offensive line was creating as he and Frankie Trivigno were amassing impressive chunks of yardage on the ground against East Orange.

However, just one critical turnover was all that would matter as East Orange took full advantage of its golden opportunity, mounting a critical third-quarter drive off a fumble return en route to its victory.

“We were running through them like butter,” said Cardio, who finished with 24 carries for 95 yards, while Trivigno (13 for 180) was also breaking free for long gainers of 28 or more yards on four different rushes. “One turnover, which occurred when we thought we were going in to build our lead turned out to be huge.

“You have to give East Orange credit for taking advantage of what we gave them, but we felt like the game was there for us to win and we just couldn’t finish tonight.”

Morris Knolls, which also lost at East Orange, 26-17, two weeks ago in a final regular season game, finishes the season at 7-4.

The Golden Eagles led, 14-12, and were in the midst of an impressive 84-yard drive from their own 3 to the East Orange 13 on their first possession of the second half when the key turnover occurred. In a game where the veer’s familiar option pitch was rarely needed due to the huge holes for runs up the middle all night long for Cardio and Trivigno, its use in a rare instance at a key juncture turned out to be an event of misfortune for the Golden Eagles.

An errant pitch on a first-and 10 at the East Orange 13 was scooped up by the Jaguars’ Carlo Thomas at his own 5 and returned to the 25, setting the stage for a game-changing, 10-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by Hakeem Harvey’s 4-yard touchdown run with 2:49 left in the third quarter.

With a successful two-point conversion pass, East Orange took a 20-14 lead that would hold up.

“We were rolling before that fumble,” said Morris Knolls linebacker John Cordasco. “Watching our offense run the football so well against their defense for the first three quarters just made us feel we were in a good position to win the game, but, unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

As an impressive follow-up to what proved to be its winning touchdown drive, East Orange mounted yet another time-consumming march down the field, eating up 8:50 of the fourth quarter as it ran 19 plays and moved from its own 13 to the Morris Knolls’ 16.

Although the drive ended with a fourth down incomplete pass, the damage had been done as the Golden Eagles had just 2:20 left in the fourth in order to try and mount a last-ditch drive to tie or win the game in regulation.

“At that point we were just trying to run out the clock,” said Bell. “If we scored, fine, but we wanted to keep control of the football and just knock off minutes, which we did.”

A 19-yard run by quarterback Nick DeRosa to his own 31 followed by the Golden Eagles’ first completion of the night with 1:13 left, an 8-yard toss from DeRosa to Ben Margolit, spurred Morris Knolls as it eventually moved to the Jaguars’ 48 on its last-ditch effort in the waning moments. However, a sack of DeRosa by East Orange defensive tackle Julio Geronimo for a seven-yard loss with 5.2 seconds left followed by a pass interception by East Orange’s Akeem Cunningham on the game’s final play closed the door on Knolls’ hopes and their season.

“I felt like I needed to make a play at that point and the sack felt great,” said Geronimo. “Our entire defense stepped it up on the second half and I think our depth may have worn them down a little in the fourth quarter because we had a lot of guys going one way and most of their guys were out on the field the whole time.”
Meanwhile, Knolls finished an eventful season in a very entertaining game, albeit in a loss to a very talented East Orange team.

“We had a great year with a lot of exciting games like this one, but it’s very disappointing to lose in the playoff semifinals,” said Cordasco, who helped lead a spirited effort by the Knolls defense. “We gave it our all out there tonight, but just came up a bit short.”

East Orange, led by its impressive sophomore quarterback Quadir Pendleton (8-of-15 for 103 yards and a touchdown), went on top 6-0 with 2:07 left in the first quarter on a beautiful 19-yard fade pass to Thomas in the left corner of the end zone to finish a 8-play, 73-yard drive.

Morris Knolls responded with an 11-play, 70-yard march capped by Cardio’s 1-yard TD run. Leo Trinidad’s first of two successful extra point placements game the Golden Eagles a 7-6 lead with 10:51 left in the second quarter.

East Orange re-took the lead on a 38-yard option pass from Cunningham to Thomas with 6:47 left in the half for a 12-7 advantage, capping a 7-play, 66-yard advance.

Morris Knolls took a 14-12 halftime lead on DeRosa’s 1-yard QB sneak with 3:03 left in the half to finish a strong 10-play, 71-yard drive.

Morris Knolls, which had a 311-173 edge on the ground on the night, held a resounding 179-57 rushing edge at halftime.

The Jaguars had 166 yards through the air to only 15 for the Golden Eagles.

MK (7-4) 0 14 0 0 -- 14
EO (10-1) 6 6 8 0 -- 20

EO- Carlo Thomas 19 pass from Quadir Pendleton (pass failed)
MK- Kellan Cardio 1 run (Leo Trinidad kick)
EO- Thomas 38 pass from Akeem Cunningham (run failed)
MK- Nick DeRosa 1 run ( Trinidad kick)
EO- Hakeem Harvey 4 run (Keion Wade pass from Pendleton)