The chemistry dates back to their days together as freshmen coaches under Gil Bragg at their high school alma mater Irvington, one of the schools the two have worked together at during a long and successful career guiding successful high school football programs.
Now, as they continue to help guide one of the state’s better Group 5 public school programs, head man Darnell Grant and assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Cyrus Harbin are seeing the results as their Mountaineers continue to reveal a quick-hitting, proficient and rather stingy defensive unit.
West Orange (3-1), which is coming off back-to-back solid victories over Irvington (19-0, Sept. 10) and state-ranked Shabazz (13-6, Sept. 18), now prepares to face neighboring Essex County rival East Orange Campus (2-1), 7 p.m., Friday night at Suriano Stadium.
“We’ve been really disciplined defensively and we’re making teams earn everything they can get,” said Grant, who has been a head coach at Irvington along with Shabazz and now the Mountaineers. “Cyrus and I were freshmen coaches together at Irvington back in 1996 and have been together ever since.
“He does a great job with our defense and the kids have responded great to what we’re trying to do.
“Now we get ready to face East Orange which is fast, physical and mean and they like to play at our place so we know that it is going to be a war out there Friday night.
“Our schedule is hellacious but our players – who include some returning guys and also a bunch of newer guys - all look forward to the weekly challenges.”
The challenge at Shabazz (2-1) was limiting one of the favorites in Group 3 and the Mountaineers did just that behind the strong play of a number of defenders including Rutgers commit and senior DE Sydney Padilla (3 sacks, 7 tackles), junior DB Kolbi Turner (6 tackles, 1 forced fumble), senior nose tackle Faheem Issah (5 tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble), senior strong safety Xavier Davis (5 tackles, 1 forced fumble), senior DB Israel Giles (5 tackles, 1 fumble recovery) and junior DB Jayden Pierre-Saint (5 tackles).
“Shabazz is a tough place to play and they have a talented bunch over there, but our defense has remained disciplined,” continued Grant. “We have had 14 shutout quarters in the last 16 which you’ll take almost every time.
“We expect another very tough battle with East Orange and would expect nothing less.”
West Orange’s lone defeat to date came in the season opening Mountaineer Classic at Suriano Stadium when state-ranked Ramapo (3-1) scored 13 fourth-quarter points to come from behind and edge the Mountaineers, 13-12.
Offensively, West Orange has a solid, veteran quarterback in Daniel Lewis (6-of-10 for 61 yards, 1 TD and 1 Int. and 8 carries for 118 yards vs. Shabazz) and has been receiving strong work production from junior running back Tyreon Spruell (25 carries for 104 yards vs. Shabazz).
