Cooper: Seven angles, one instant replay review, and Clifton football is denied

We had to have a winner.

We just didn’t want it to happen that way.

The first thing I asked of the officials on the sidelines when Sunday’s Clifton-East Orange Campus football game went to overtime was whether or not we could have a tie.

Remember, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association – prodded by its student advisory committee – did away with ties in state-championship events a few years ago.

So, once we got to the third overtime of the North Group 5 regional final at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium in Piscataway, the teams had to go for two. And if it was still tied after that, play on.

We never got there.

On the first possession of the third overtime, Clifton bulled its way to the 1-yard line. Both teams had to be tired. It was getting colder. Senior quarterback Kyle Vellis tried a sneak just behind his left guard. The play had worked for the Mustangs on a first-quarter touchdown.

Then it was chaos. A sea of red and blue Jaguars jerseys against white and maroon Mustangs. Pushing. Pulling.

No whistle.

No signal.

Out from the pack came East Orange DB Ahmad Nalls, holding up the football at first, then taking off toward the opposite goal line. You could almost see it happen in real time.

Nalls with the ball. Nalls realizing he could run with it. Nalls realizing he could score. Nalls realizing he would score. The Jaguars realizing they would win.

Clifton players edged from the bench, wasn’t it a touchdown? East Orange players rushed to celebrate.

Then it was time to go to the video.

Instant replay had been used in New Jersey high school football since 2018 in the regular season. The goal is to get the calls right. That’s all. Quietly, it was shelved for this regular season. Why? It came down to having all the right equipment and personnel to do it. Not everyone has it, and you know what they always find? A lot more calls are right than you think.

However, for the regional championship games at MetLife Stadium and at Rutgers, it could be done.

There were seven camera angles available at Rutgers. I know. I asked.

Replay officials looked at the Vellis sneak. The call was confirmed. East Orange had won, 30-24. Clifton coach Ralph Cinque, as passionate as any coach you meet, chose his words carefully, but said he thought his team was robbed.

Vellis, stunned, said the ball was in his hands, so “I know everything that happened.”

“I am about a yard in, and a kid ripped it from me and takes it back, what, 100 yards?” Vellis said. “I know for a fact that I reached over, broke the plane. Clearly. It wasn’t even close.”

East Orange coach Rae Oliver told NorthJersey.com writer Rob Aitken that the call was proven “without a shadow of a doubt.”

“The ruling on the field was it was a strip, a fumble recovery and a touchdown,” Oliver said. “The one guy that called touchdown, he said that he never put his arms up, and it was after the fact. That’s why we are so happy we have instant replay in these scenarios, because it took away the doubt.”

Well, there’s still some doubt. I knew by the time I got back home from Rutgers, there would be photos and video angles from the last play.

Sure enough, there is a picture of Vellis mobbed by East Orange players. His two hands are on the ball at the same time as Nalls. Vellis is straddling the goal line, one knee in and one knee out. If anything, his knee is down, so the play should have been over. It is logical to assume that the ball is in the end zone, since his knee is in the end zone.

So what happened?

Here’s the hard truth. I bet the refs couldn’t see. That’s the only explanation that makes sense. In that sea of bodies, the refs along the goal line were obscured. The ref looking straight on at the play doesn’t have the angle to make the call of whether or not it’s a touchdown.

How many times do football fans see it at the next level? When there is replay, officials let the play continue.

My guess is, all seven of those angles are obscured as well. The call was confirmed because the replay officials couldn’t tell either.

I’m still a proponent of instant replay. Even Cinque said the same thing at the end. No one at the NJSIAA or the officials were trying to shortchange Clifton. If anything, remember, Mustangs athletic director Tom Mullahey is President of the Executive Committee.

NJSIAA Executive Director Colleen Maguire was standing in the end zone watching the Vellis sneak, about 15 yards away.

Instant replay was created to make sure everything is done to try to get the call right. It’s foolish to think we shouldn’t use it when everyone on the sidelines is holding up a cell-phone camera on just about every play (guilty as charged, my view of the play from the Clifton sidelines is totally obscured, which is why I bet the replay cameras are blocked as well).

You can say we should get rid of replay if it’s not going to work. I could say that even in the NFL, replay doesn’t get all the calls right either, and they have more than seven angles.

I’m 99 percent sure Vellis was in. We will never know what would have happened on the next possession. We had a winner. It was East Orange. We all have a story to tell for a lifetime.

Darren Cooper is a high school sports columnist for NorthJersey.com. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis from our Varsity Aces team, subscribe today. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter and download our app.

Email: cooperd@northjersey.com

Twitter: @varsityaces

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ football: 7 angles, one instant replay review and Clifton is denied