A year ago, Kahlil Lewin made a name for himself at Yankee Stadium when he ripped off a hard-to-believe 52-yard run, picked up by ESPN Sportscenter’s Top 10 plays in Erasmus Hall’s loss to Lincoln in the PSAL City Championship division title game.
His good friend and backfield cohort Curtis Samuel was at the Stadium that night — but not available to help after suffering broken bones in his leg during the regular season.
Fast forward to Tuesday night, when the pair made their return to The Bronx a memorable one.
Samuel and Lewin combined for 248 total yards to lead No. 1 Erasmus Hall to the school’s first city title, 15-14, over second-seeded Tottenville and a 12-0 season.
“This will last forever,” said Samuel, a dynamic junior who scored the game-winning two-point conversion late in the third quarter. “When me and Kahlil are both having good games, it’s hard to stop us. You can’t guess which way we’re going to run the ball.”
The win capped a trying month for Erasmus coach Danny Landberg, a Belle Harbor resident whose home was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. The intense Landberg, who has turned the Dutchmen into a city-wide powerhouse, didn’t miss a practice despite being displaced from his family by the treacherous storm.
“The storm is going to continue to be hard for me,” he said. “I kind of felt like God was going to give me a bone for that. It couldn’t come at a better time.”
Tottenville seemed to miss suspended stars Augustus Edwards, a Syracuse-bound running back, and Malique Belfort on offense as it was stymied by E-Hall after an impressive early drive. The duo missed the entire playoffs for breaking team rules and, to make matters worse, starting quarterback Brandon Barnes suffered a left collarbone injury early in the fourth quarter and was unable to finish out his final high school game.
Tottenville (10-2) did take the lead late in third quarter on Barnes’ 4-yard touchdown run, but Erasmus came right back as Samuel converted a 3rd-and-11 out of the Wildcat with a 53-yard run. Jonathan Samerson’s 3-yard touchdown run and Samuel’s two-point conversion gave Erasmus a 15-14 lead with 2:07 left in the third quarter, and they held that advantage the rest of the way.
“Best player I ever coached at Erasmus,” Landberg said of Samuel. “No question.”
Tottenville did have two chances in the final minutes of the fourth quarter in Erasmus territory, but the Dutchmen’s defense held firm. Tysene Foster, Rujel Henry and Oumar Coulibaly converged on backup quarterback Joshua Rainey on the final play for a championship-clinching sack.
“I’m not surprised by what our kids do. They’re resilient. We’ve been down and we’ve in tight games every single week of the regular season,” Landberg said. “We work the heck out of these kids. We always tell them we’re training you for 12 rounds and we want you to be able to fight with 30 seconds left in the 12th round, full blast, punching away.”