Mountie-East Orange game to be played in 'Rumble on the Raritan' Sept. 3 at Rutgers

Montclair High School’s 2021 football season will get its start under the bright lights of Rutgers University.

The Mounties’ season-opening contest against archrival East Orange will be played at SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Friday, Sept. 3, one of a dozen high school football games being played that weekend as part of the ‘Rumble On The Raritan’ event.

The Mounties and Jaguars will renew acquaintances as the late game Friday, with kickoff is set for 8 p.m.

The 12-game Rumble On The Raritan (see full schedule below) will be played over three days, Friday-Sunday, Sept. 3-5. Tickets are $12 apiece for each day’s slate of four games; stadium parking is $15. Tickets can be purchased in advance at Rumble On The Raritan’s website, or in-person at the stadium box office on the day of the game.

The schedule features seven matchups between New Jersey public schools, including MHS-EOHS, as well as three matchups between New Jersey parochial programs and out-of-state powers, one all-NJ private-vs.-public showdown, and a battle of out-of-state schools featuring one of Philadelphia’s top programs.

Mountie memories at Rutgers

This will mark the fifth time in program history, and second time in three years, that Montclair High will play a football game on the Rutgers campus.

The most famous of the program’s previous four games at Rutgers came in 2011, when superstar QB Khalif Herbin ran for 211 yards and scored six touchdowns to lead the Mounties to a 43-41 win over powerhouse St. Peter’s Prep.

Montclair made its first appearance at Rutgers in 1999, when the NJSIAA moved the Mounties’ North 2, Group IV semifinal game against Linden there. MHS rolled, 57-26, behind 186 rushing yards and 4 TDs from Justin Ashe.

Two years later, an unbeaten MHS team then returned to Piscataway in 2001 and suffered a bitter 10-7 upset defeat at the hands of Phillipsburg in the North 2, Group IV championship game.

Khalif Herbin (7) scores a touchdown during Montclair’s 2011 game against St. Peter’s Prep at Rutgers.

With Giants Stadium and later MetLife Stadium emerging as the go-to host site for Montclair’s state playoff finals after 2001, it would be another decade before the Mounties returned. It would be worth the wait. In one of the program’s landmark wins under head coach John Fiore, Montclair opened its 2011 season with a entertaining 43-41 slugfest win over parochial powerhouse St. Peter’s Prep. Khalif Herbin continued to cement his name as one of the most electric players in school history, running for 211 yards and 5 touchdowns, and scoring a sixth TD on an 88-yard kick return.

Montclair’s most recent visit to Piscataway was one to forget, as the Mounties were shut down in a 29-6 loss to West Orange in the 2019 season opener.

Longtime rivals square off

Originally scheduled as an East Orange home game, the game’s move to Rutgers will allow fans from across the state to enjoy one of New Jersey’s oldest and most traditional gridiron rivalries. Montclair and East Orange have been squaring off on the gridiron since Nov. 6, 1897, and the Rumble on the Raritan will mark the 102nd meeting between the schools. No school has played the Mounties more often than East Orange (though Bloomfield will equal that mark when the Bengals face the Mounties for the 102nd time on Sept. 25).

MHS holds a narrow 49-47-5 all-time advantage in the series, reflecting East Orange’s dominance in the first four decades of the 20th century. Montclair is 40-18 against East Orange since the arrival of Clary Anderson in 1940.

The two schools met every year from 1897 to 1981, but conference realignment separated the schools from 1982 to 2008. They met just three times in that time span, all in the state playoffs, and East Orange High became East Orange Campus in 2002 after a merger with Clifford Scott High School. The formation of the Super Essex Conference in 2009 rekindled the neighborhood rivalry, and the teams have met annually since then.

The Jaguars have won three in a row in the series, including a 13-0 defensive battle at Woodman Field last October. Prior to that EO streak, the Mounties won eight straight games from 2011-2018. East Orange finished the truncated 2020 season 4-3 overall, while Montclair was 4-4.

Rumble On The Raritan is a joint project of Rutgers, the New Jersey Football Coaches’ Assocation, Trademark Sports, and

For more information on the Rumble On The Raritan, follow them on Twitter and Instagram at @RumbleRaritan. The full Rumble weekend schedule is as follows:

Friday, September 3:

11 AM — Kingsway vs. Shawnee
2 PM — Union City vs. Seton Hall Prep
5 PM — St. Mary’s Ryken (MD) vs. St. Joseph Prep (PA)
8 PM — Montclair vs. East Orange

Saturday, September 4:

11 AM — Donovan Catholic vs. Archbishop Stepinac (NY)
2 PM — Willingboro vs. Cedar Creek
5 PM — Don Bosco Prep vs. Iona Prep (NY)
8 PM — DePaul Catholic vs. Cardinal Hayes (NY)

Sunday, September 5:

11 AM — Wood-Ridge vs. North Arlington
2 PM — Bernards vs. Hillside
5 PM — Northern Highlands vs. Somerville
8 PM — Wall vs. Rumson-Fair Haven