Just once, Montclair head football coach John Fiore would like to have a lead in the first half and go into halftime simply needing to hold onto that lead. Again on Saturday, though, the Mounties were behind heading into halftime, this time down 20-7 at the undefeated East Orange Campus.

While Montclair made a comeback, it was too short this time around as the Mounties dropped to .500 on the season with a 2-2 record after falling 28-14 to the Jaguars in the Super Essex Conference battle.

Fiore pointed to the missed tackles, fumbles, and failing on a fake punt as the problems that led to the loss. "We are just making too many mistakes on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively," said Fiore. "We have young players, we're going into hostile territory and I think they were a little intimidated."

As it turned out, the Montclair defense just could not handle the combination of East Orange quarterback Justin Laroda and wide receiver Malik Walker that registered three touchdowns all in the first half.

While the Mounties were without defensive back Otis Wright, he did not blame the defensive backs like Marqui Salley, Isiaiah Dorval, and Aamad Bush for the loss. He actually credited them for playing well. "They played real well on the corners and they weren't the reason for us losing," said Fiore.

The new Montclair head coach said that he expects Wright back for Livingston on Saturday as the Mounties look to break a two-game losing streak.

He added that East Orange did not do anything that they had not prepared for before the game. "They were using traps and isos's effectively, but we knew they were going to do that," said Fiore.

The turning point actually might have come at the start of the second half. The Mounties got the ball first and running back Stephaun Marshall was running at the Montclair 45 when he fumbled the ball and East Orange's Moon Shamier recovered it.

Three plays later, Laroda hit Ajalon Cooper on a 16-yard touchdown. Montclair defensive backs Michael Kornegay and Dorval just could not stay with the 6-foot-6-inch wide receiver. "We had the ball then Steph fumbled it and they recovered it and went down and scored," said Fiore. "That is a 14-point swing."

At one point, Montclair was down 28-7, but they sort of resuscitated themselves with a minute left in the third quarter when Mounties punters Michael Smith faked a punt and shake-and-baked 74 yards for a touchdown. Ulrich Taylor hit the point after and cut the Jaguars lead to 14, 28-14.

After Montclair's Lateef Pendleton stopped East Orange running Chris Rolling on a 4th and 4, the Mounties got the ball with a little less than 10 minutes left in the game.

Behind the running of Montclair quarterback Khalif Herbin, the Mounties were able to move the ball down the field although on the ground and running off the clock. Herbin would roll up 36 yards in the drive of his 107 rushing yards in the game.

Any comeback though was snuffed out when Herbin's pass to Smith fell short on a fourth down and eight in the final two minutes of the game.

Not including the first game, Montclair will face its fourth straight game where the opponent is over .500. Against Livingston, they face a Lancers team that is 3-1 after beating Irvington, 17-14, on Friday night.
   
Montclair 2010 football schedule
(Games at 1 p.m. unless noted)

Oct. 9            Livingston, 2:30 p.m.
Oct. 16          At West Orange
Oct. 23          Irvington
Oct. 29          At West Side
Nov. 25         Bloomfield, 10:30 a.m.