West Orange Playbook Is Timely
In North's Decisive Win Vs. South

EWING TOWNSHIP- With just 1 day of practice - but with a season full of precise offensive execution behind them - West Orange coach Andrew Mazurek and his star receiver Nola Duncan were more than prepared to be two-thirds of the combination in pulling off the most impressive and exciting play of the third annual Phil Simms New Jersey North-South Flag Football All-Star Game played on sunny but-not-too-hot Saturday afternoon (June 20) at The College of New Jersey’s Lions Stadium.

In a contest where the North dominated on both sides of the ball in a 34-0 shutout win over the South, it was a classic ‘hook-and-ladder’ play where the Mountaineers’ Duncan lateraled the ball to Bayonne’s all-state wide receiver Tatyanna Watson who then turned the play into a 50-yard breakaway sprint into the end zone just before the half for a 20-0 lead.

The victory marked the North’s third straight triumph over the South in the popular addition of girls flag football to a busy day of all-star excitement with the traditional 48th Simms All-Star Classic boys football game played in the evening where the North also emerged victorious, 14-6.

While there were many standouts for the North in the girls flag all-star contest, including MVP Jaelynn Perez, who had a touchdown reception and one of her team’s four interceptions, but nothing quite stood out like the exciting hook-and-ladder play for a long TD and what essentially sealed the deal for the North in its dominant showing vs. the South.

Following a 7-yard pass completion from North quarterback Nora Istvan of Montville to Duncan, the West Orange all-state wide out’s coach quickly decided that an opportune time had presented itself to utilize a play that hadn’t been practiced by the North all-star team on its one day of tuning up together; however, had found success for the Mountaineers during the regular flag football season in the Super Football Conference.

“Although we hadn’t practiced it for this game, it is something me and Nola practice throughout the season, and we I know that ‘Taty’ (Tatyanna Watson) is a very experienced player,” said Mazurek, who is also a varsity assistant with the offense, and coaches the JVs for head man Darnell Grant’s West Orange football team in the fall. “I told ‘Taty’ when she was on the sideline before she went in for the play to tell Nola to flip the ball to you and she’ll know what to do, and it turned out even better than I could have imagined.”

North QB Istvan (11-of-16 for 102 yards) connected with Duncan (3 receptions for 31 yards) for a quick 6-yard gain, but before any South player could grab her flag, the West Orange star wide out then lateraled the ball to Watson, who caught 99 passes during the spring for the Bayonne, and the fleet-footed receiver for the Hudson County flag powerhouse then took on a 50-yard sprint into the end zone to give the North its 20-0 lead with just 5 seconds remaining before halftime.

“Although we had never really worked on that before, there is a trust factor there between me and Tatyanna and the play just went really well for a key score which left us full of joy and gave us a lot of momentum heading into the second half,” said the athletic and tall (5-foot-11) Duncan, who is headed to play women’s volleyball at Towson University in Maryland. “This was a really exciting game for us and although it was also pretty bitter sweet in a way being my last high school flag game, it was tremendous that we ended it on a good note and I was so glad to do it with this team of girls from different schools who worked well together and for coach ‘Maz’ who did a great job along with all our coaches.

“After four years as a flag team at West Orange it’s great to see that the program is fully established now, the confidence among all the girls has continued to grow and we stuck together like glue for an amazing season while I’m also fortunate to be able to cap it all off here today with a great win with the North all-stars!”

The North would build on its lead in the second half on a run by North MVP Perez of DePaul to cap a 5-play, 66-yard advance with 12:23 left in the third quarter and finished off the scoring parade with a 27-yard interception return by West Milford’s Sara Wardlaw for a 34-0 lead  with 2:48 left in the fourth quarter.

Mount Olive’s first-team all-state running back Molly Smyth scored the North’s first two touchdowns of the afternoon, first on a 1-yard run with 53 seconds left in the first quarter and then -following a 39-yard completion from Istvan to Weequahic’s Heaven Porter (3 receptions for 79 yards) to the South 1 yard line – the Marauders’ star took it in again from the 1 as the North took a 13-0 lead with 11:01 still showing in the second quarter.

The South squad, with offensive players such as Union QB Amiyah Louis Jiles and its game MVP Gabriella Gonzalez of Sayreville trying to generate something, just couldn’t penetrate the very stingy North defense, with stars such as its MVP Perez of DePaul and others such as strong pass rushers such as Newark Central linebacker Aishat Hassan.

“We had a great bunch of kids to work with on the North,” said Mazurek. “They’re smart, energetic, they came together so quickly and they respected me as a coach.

“I knew some of them from our teams playing each other during the season, and I had Nola with me from West Orange; but, in the end we just grew together because of our love for football!”                

NOTES- Two Union County players – Union High School QB Amiyah Louis-Jiles (9-of-18 for 67 yards) and RB-WR Amira McNeill of Linden, were on the South all-star squad. McNeill was coming of a second-team all-state season in which she rushed for 1,661 yards…Star WR Tatyanna Watson’s Bayonne team finished 17-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state this spring…West Orange’s Dennis was a 2-time all-state selection and finished her career with 174 receptions for 2,265 yards and 35 TDs…Newark Central, which had a pair of North all-stars in LB Alshat Hassan (135 flag pulls this past season) and third-team all-state LB Harmony Roundtree (Fairleigh Dickinson University) …Mount St. Dominic’s Jacqueline Karcic had a reception for the North vs. the South…the head coach for the South was Rumson-Fair Haven’s Randy Kalman. Union’s Stephen Radzik was one of the assistants for the South squad.