Justin Evans-Jenkins still officially makes his home in Irvington, yet has apparently found a cozy second residency for weekends away.
The West Side backfield.
West Side ran 33 plays, and more than one third of them ended with Evans-Jenkins or one of his teammates on the back of West Side senior Devion Sheppard for a sack.
Evans-Jenkins had a hand in five of those 12 sacks while also pulling double duty on the offensive line on a warm, sunny afternoon.
Behind his overpowering play, two second-half TD passes from Saquan Gordon to Adon Shuler and two field goals from Anthony Ellis, Irvington rolled to a 28-0 victory in their Super Football Conference-Freedom White Division clash at Schools Stadium in Newark.
“We had to get after them today. We won last week (32-26 in OT against Hudson Catholic), but as a defense we didn’t really have that good a game. We had to make up for it here,” Evans-Jenkins said. “We worked together and we just accomplished it and dominated today.”
Evans-Jenkins and his crew dominated so convincingly that their achievements thoroughly overshadowed some of the recurring struggles that have plagued the offense in the first few weeks of this season.
Three of Irvington’s five possessions in the first half began inside West Side territory, and the other two outside the Irvington 40. Yet the Blue Knights (3-1) were only able to build a 10-0 lead with a 25-yard run by Kyshir Desir and a 28-yard field goal Ellis, who would add a 23-yarder in the fourth quarter.
But while Irvington’s offense generated only 45 combined yards in that opening half, it seemed like a windfall compared with West Side’s results against Evans-Jenkins and Company.
The Roughriders (1-2) accumulated only 16 combined yards in the first half and did not cross midfield once in those opening quarters. That would not happen until the fourth, and that was the result of an Irvington penalty on a punt return.
“The sacks are one of the biggest things Coach Smoke (Ashley Pierre) talks about. We want first and second downs, and that’s pretty much the game,” Shuler said. The recent Notre Dame commit built upon a 13-0 lead with his back-to-back scoring catches in the final nine minutes, and he also helped anchor the defense from free safety.
There wasn’t, however, a great deal for Shuler to do at times but admire as Evans-Jenkins, Tafari Thompson (two sacks), Nasir Shabazz (1.5), Zamar Grove (1.5), Lensley Theronge, Sammuel Joseph and Famah Toure wreaked havoc in the West Side backfield.
“The defense was getting out there and getting after it, giving the offense tries to get back on the field and score,” said the 6-2, 270-pound Evans-Jenkins, a three-star prospect who currently holds 14 FBS offers, but has all that field away for the time being.
“Right now, I’m still open,” he said. “I’m just focusing on the season right now, helping my team out the best I can.”
And just how good can Evans-Jenkins and his teammates the rest of this autumn?
“We can be the best team in the state, we just have to work,” he said. “The goal is to win the state championship, and that’s been the goal since I’ve been at Irvington.”
For Irvington to reach that level, its offense will need to attack with more of the zeal so consistently displayed by the defense. The Knights definitely have made progress since an opening-season loss to Mount Olive, 2-0, and there is plenty of time to keep improving.
“We didn’t execute the way we wanted to, but each week you evolve more and you get better,. That’s all I want from my offense,” Shuler said. “You keep bouncing and you get better, each week, each practice. The goal is always to get better.”
West Side’s rugged defense certainly had plenty to do with Irvington’s occasional ball-movement troubles despite all the prime real estate it was accorded.
Sophomore linebacker Rashaad Williams was in on 12 tackles and had one sack, senior DE Mustafa Khayyam had five tackles and was in on a sack, and Al-Muhayamin Lockhart, Nyad Walker and Dashawn Lawton all turned in strong performances.
Early in the fourth quarter, West Side lost one of its top two-way players, senior Mozion Khayyam, to a lower leg injury. Khayyam, the twin brother of Mustafa, flashed a thumbs up sign to his teammates as he was carried off field by stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital.
For the game, West Side was held to 36 combined yards while Irvington compiled 230. Gordon was 7 of 16 for 129 yards and the TD throws to Shuler for 28 and 62 yards. Desir led all ball carriers with 62 yards on 14 attempts. His 25-yard scoring run two minutes into the second quarter came two plays after the Knights fielded a punt at the West Side 25-yard line.
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Mike Kinney can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeKinneyHS.
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