And, the overabundance of penalty flags thrown by an officiating crew made for an unbearable slow pace with innumerable stoppages of play.

Yet, despite the lack of any rhythm or pace to the contest, EOC still produced more than enough offense.

“This was not a benchmark of where we need to be,” said Jacob, the fourth-year EOC head coach who was also the offensive coordinator for the 2021 Jaguars team that captured a North, Group 5 regional championship with a memorable 30-24 triple-overtime thriller vs. Clifton at Rutgers Stadium. “We had a lot of those ‘first-and-a-mile’ situations and we should have scored more, but we still made enough plays, and our defense really locked them down.

“We’ll get back to work this week and continue go at it in practice in order to clean things up because we know that we have to play a lot better than we did tonight in order to get to where we know we want to be.”

EOC hosts West Side, 2;30 p.m., Saturday (Sept. 13) at Robeson Stadium in its home opener, while Livingston will entertain Millburn, 7 p.m., Friday (Sept. 12) back at The Jake.

NOTES- Temple commit Hanks also has had offers from UMass, Syracuse, UNC-Charlotte and West Virginia…Wittingburg has several schools, including Pitt and Syracuse, among those making offical offers from a list that also includes UNC-Charlotte and Akron…Senior D-lineman Shaheem Dezonie has committed to Long Island University…EOC has recent, former standouts currently excelling at the college level including Walter Camp pre-season ‘Players to Watch’ in linebacker Kyle Louis at Pitt and Al-Jay Henderson at Buffalo…Minter, another college prospect to watch for EOC, also boosted the receiving corps at Livingston with 5 catches for 61 yards… Senior placekicker Jean Jayden, who would miss on a 23-yard field goal on another drive deep into Livingston territory in the first half, booted two successful extra point placements....The Lancers had defeated Barringer, 48-0, Aug. 29, at Schools Stadium in Newark to kick off their 2025 campaign in roaring style...EOC defeated its archrival West Orange, 13-7, last November to win the N1G5 sectional playoff championship before losing to Union City in the Group 5 semifinals. Union City then lost to Toms River North, 41-14, in overall Group 5 final played at MetLife Stadium.

Super Football Conference-Freedom Red Division Game, Sept. 5:
EAST ORANGE CAMPUS (1-0)     13    7     6      0       - 26
LIVINGSTON (1-1)                           0     0     0      0        - 0
EOC- Shaler Jackson 14 run (Jean Jayden kick)
EOC- Alex Hanks 32 pass from Zach Conception (kick failed)
EOC- Hanks 11 pass from Conception (Jayden kick)
EOC- Hanks 30 pass from Conception (kick failed)