SPORTS WRAP By William Hathaway, Jr.
The New Jersey high school football state sectional semifinals got the state closer to crowning its champions. First, the East Orange Jaguars remained perfect this past weekend, despite a one hour delay due to thunderstorms. The Jaguars defended their home turf and beat rival West Orange 14-0 at Paul Roberson Stadium. The action broke open in the third quarter when Kyle Louis took a punt return 70 yards for a touchdown. Senior Raeden Oliver, who is head coach Rae Oliver’s son, added a 3-yard TD run to finish off the Mountaineers.
East Orange is now 10-0 on the season, and for the first time will host the championship game at home on Saturday against a tough Passaic County Tech for the North Jersey Section 1 Group 5 State Championship. PCT recently beat Ridgewood 28-9 to get to the title game. East Orange last appeared in a sectional title game back in 2009, when they were joined by fellow Essex County school West Side in winning crowns at Giants Stadium.
As for another Essex team, the 9-2 Irvington Blue Knights are going to a state championship game thanks to a 14-7 win over Colonia. They will take on Middletown South for the North Jersey Section 2 Group 4 title. With both teams carrying tough defenses, points will be hard to come by.
In the NFL, the Jets were grounded by the Bills 45-17. This result further added to a war of words between current coach Robert Saleh and former coach Rex Ryan, who took exception to people comparing the two.
