By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
@sjglorydays on Instagram
MAYS LANDING — There will be plenty for the Oakcrest High football coaching staff to critique when they watch the film of Friday night’s season opener against visiting Highland Regional. But the most important thing in the first game of any season is getting the win — especially when you’re coming off a 2-7 campaign from 2025.
It was sloppy at times and slow going with turnovers and penalties on both sides, but the Falcons caught fire in the third quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns to boost a scant 2-0 halftime lead. Oakcrest went on to cruise to an 18-0 win over the Tartans after that pair of touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Zane Forest in the third frame.
The only points of the first half came on the second possession of the game for Highland (0-1, 0-0 West Jersey Football League Liberty) as Oakcrest junior Malik Hughes and about half the defense converged on Tartans quarterback Matthew Tausendfrenudt in the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 lead.
Highland answered by driving down to the Oakcrest 5-yard line in the second quarter, but Oakcrest’s Jayden Graves recovered a fumble, nullifying the Tartans’ best drive of the game.
“It was a momentum thing,” said Oakcrest’s Javier Guzman, a 6-foot-2, 290-pound lineman. “If we didn’t grab the momentum, I don’t think it would have been the same game. After we scored that first touchdown, we started to pick up defensive stops — fumbles, interceptions, sacks, pressures — and it all started to have that domino effect.”
That first touchdown came on the second possession of the third quarter for Oakcrest (1-0, 0-0 WJFL Memorial), as Forest hooked up with a wide-open Mahkai Cooper Corbin in the end zone on 4th-and-5 at the 21. Freshman kicker Jackson Carr banged home the extra point to give the Falcons a 9-0 lead.
“He was so wide open, I kind of just floated it up there and let him get it. I didn’t want to overthrow him,” said Forest, who threw for 1,300 yards and 14 touchdowns last year as a freshman. “In the second half, I started to just look more at my matchups and try to find a weakness in their defense. We realized we could pass a lot more on those guys, so we started to pass more. When we went into halftime I was talking to the coaches, we were looking at film and I said we had to pass the ball more.
“I felt very comfortable and I felt like I had more poise,” he added. “Last year, I took my lumps, but this year I feel very comfortable. All summer we worked so hard because of last season. Two wins (last year) is unacceptable. Being 1-0 definitely builds our confidence, but we know we have a lot more work to do.”
Oakcrest added another score on its next possession, as Forest overcame a tough holding penalty on the offense by throwing a perfect pass down the left sideline to Uthman Mitchell on 3rd-and-25 from the 38-yard line.
“I was originally looking to the trips side with that concept, but I have one of the best playmakers, Uthman Mitchell, on the backside in a one-on-one, so I just wanted to give him a chance to go get it,” Forest said.
Added senior lineman Ricky Apodaca, “We collected each other (at halftime), got together and just talked about our mistakes, then fixed them (in the second half). We came out here having a good mindset. We were ready.”
A 16-point lead was plenty the way Oakcrest’s defensive unit was playing. Highland is expecting several high-level transfers to be eligible later in the September, and the Tartans got some good running from London Butts and Jamere Roberts, but Highland had trouble sustaining drives in the second half. The Tartans had a turnover, turned the ball over on downs twice, suffered a safety and punted on another possession.
“We were dead in the first half, but we went into the locker room at halftime and talked about what we needed to do, what we needed to work on,” Guzman said. “We just had to play for our brothers and think about (what’s on the back of our helmets), which is M.O.R.E. (mental toughness, oneness, rise and energy. We had to pick it up. We realized (the second half) was just 30 minutes of our lives and we could easily pick up (our effort).”
Oakcrest’s next two games are at home, against rival Absegami and then Deptford, then the Falcons hit the road for a matchup at Egg Harbor Township. Forest said the Falcons need to really work on better communication going forward so they can cut down on the slew of penalties in the season opener.
“Communication on both sides of the ball (is key),” he said. “We just have to get in tune with each other, like on the snap counts. I love my offensive line. They’re young, but I played with a lot of them in youth league, and seeing their improvement means a lot. And our skill players, we have a lot of guys.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Oakcrest hosts Absegami on Thursday at 6 p.m. Highland hosts Bridgeton on Friday at 6 p.m.
