It wasn’t James Howell or Travon Segure or Tyrone Raymond or Wesley Sumpter. It wasn’t Ivan Foy or Rasheem Stroud or Kevon Foster or Lamont Williams.
It wasn’t even Brandon Reddish.
No, the player who made the defining play in No. 2 Fort Hamilton’s 8-6 win over top-seed Lincoln in the PSAL City Championship game at Yankee Stadium wasn’t one of the many all-city caliber talents who got ink this week. It was senior H-back Dylan Campili, who hauled in the 2-point conversion pass from quarterback Marvin Centeno that put the Tigers (13-0) ahead for good with 3:12 left in the third quarter.
“Honestly, I can’t believe I caught it,” Campili said. “Of all the great players on my team, for me to come down with it, it’s a feeling I never experienced before.”
What made the catch even more amazing is that Campili had the hardest time catching anything thrown his way Monday in practice. Yet coach Danny Perez called his number.
“My head was in a million different places,” he said. “My hands were freezing. It was cold yesterday. I don’t know. I just kept dropping it. For some reason, Coach had faith in me. I respect that of him.”
Added Perez: “The funny part is we practiced that yesterday all day and he dropped it four times. Now in crunch time in Yankee Stadium with the game on the line, he caught it. He couldn’t catch a cold yesterday, but he sure caught that one.”
Centeno never thought twice about the play. He rolled back and to his right, avoided pressure, pump faked and lobbed a wobbling ball in the direction of Campili with a defender in his face.
“I said ‘Dylan, you have to get this for us,’” Centeno said. “He said, ‘OK.’ He was telling me on the sidelines how he was nervous. I had faith in him.”
Campili wasn’t sure what it was that gave him the mental fortitude to squeeze the pigskin with the championship on the line. Maybe it was the new gloves he got last week. But more likely was his mindset. Campili said when he stepped out on the turf at Yankee Stadium for the conversion, his helter skelter mind cleared out.
“The only thing I said in my head is, ‘I’m taking it in,’” he said. “There’s no way I’m dropping this ball again.”