West Orange football jumps to lead, upsets Phillipsburg in the North 2 Group 5 final

PHILLIPSBURG –

Maybe Thursday night’s North 2 Group 5 football title game would have led to a different ending for the Phillipsburg High School football team. Maybe if a roughing the punter call hadn’t been called against the Stateliners after forcing a three-and-out on the first possession of the game it would have won Pburg early momentum and changed its fate against West Orange.

But it was so so early and sixth-seeded West Orange was so so good in beating top seed Phillipsburg 28-7 at Maloney Stadium that one early sequence gone wrong wasn’t worthy of changing a game.

But it was definitely a sign of what was to come.

West Orange (8-3) took an early 14-0, scoring on both of its first two drives and went on to win its first-ever sectional title in its first trip to the final. Phillipsburg (10-1) will end its season Thanksgiving Day with Easton Area.

“We know we have a quality football team, we just had a bad night,” coach Frank Duffy said. “We got the job done for 10 games and I’m confident we will regroup and get back to it.”

West Orange’s Illinois-commit Saboor Kareem scored in double coverage in the end zone on a 32-yard reception from QB Amir Stewart with 9:05 left in the first quarter. Stewart scored the second TD of the game from two yards out with 3:48 left in the first for a 14-0 lead.

Duffy said that punt block was simply a result of being aggressive.

“It’s the way we play,” Duffy said. “I think we have gotten a piece of that.”

As tough as it looked, Pburg was in the game late and had chances of cutting the deficit to  one touchdown, but West Orange’s defense wouldn’t allow it.

P’Burg used a turnover to score its touchdown on a 13-yard Xavier Moore run with under six minutes to go before halftime that cut the deficit to 14-7. But a Jett Genovese interception – just his second of the year – gave West Orange the ball at the ‘Liners’ 28, and three plays later Adnois White scored from five yards to make it 21-7 with 1:32 left in the half.

West Orange sealed it with a 13-yard pick-six by senior Jarvis Jones with 2:54 left in the regulation.

NUMBERS

The Mountaineers out gained P’burg 304-166. That was a season-low offensive output for the Stateliners.

GAME BALLS

West Orange senior Jarvis Jones had three sacks and returned an interception 13 yards for the game’s final score.

Pburg senior linebacker Connor Hille had eight tackles and forced a fumble.

WHAT’S NEXT

West Orange will play the North 1 Group 5 winner that will be determined Saturday between No. 1 Passaic Tech and No. 2 Union City in the state semifinal next weekend. The Mountaineers lost to Passaic Tech 12-6 in September.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Big Central Conference NJ football: West Orange beats Phillipsburg