On Friday night, Oct. 27, the West Orange High School varsity football Mountaineers faced the Livingston Lancers in the 2017 home closer. Coming off a disastrous loss against Montclair in the previous week, WOHS was determined to end the home season on a high note.

The game started off slow, with a scoreless first quarter. The only highlight of this quarter was WOHS intercepting a pass at the Livingston 35-yard line two minutes in. Neither team would score until six minutes into the second quarter when WOHS ran the ball five yards into the endzone, taking a 7-0 lead.

Six minutes into the third quarter, Livingston would get on the board with a touchdown from the one after recovering a WO fumble. WO senior slotback CJ Wilson would score for WO on a 68-yard touchdown run, taking a 14-7 lead with 49 seconds to go in the third quarter.

Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Livingston would intercept a pass from starting quarterback Vincent DeSantis at the Livingston 35-yard line, and eventually score another touchdown, tying the game at 14-14. With one second to go, Livingston’s go-ahead field goal attempt was blocked, bringing the game into overtime.

“I don’t think tensions on the sidelines were that bad because we felt we would end up winning in the end,” said WOHS coach Jim Matsakis.

Livingston would get the ball first, and made it all the way to the five-yard line, but on fourth down, a holding penalty on WOHS would give Livingston an automatic first down, allowing them to score, taking a 21-14 lead. WOHS would get another chance with the ball, and scored another touchdown, tying the game again at 21-21. The second overtime would go scoreless, and once the third overtime ended without scoring, the refs ended the game and called it a draw.

“High school rules during regular season state that the game ends in a tie after the third overtime period. Much like soccer not using penalty kicks until postseason,” stated Matsakis.

Matsakis also confirmed that the none of the team’s departing seniors are going to college on football scholarships this year.

“My favorite home game was my freshman year when we kicked a field goal with three seconds left against West Essex, and this year our second-half performance when we broke free against them,” said DeSantis, who so far has 495 passing yards and 32 completions on the season.

WOHS’ next game is at East Orange on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 1pm.