It took Canarsie until late October to get into the win column last fall. By halftime Saturday afternoon, victory was basically assured.
What a difference a year can make.
The Chiefs scored all four of their touchdowns in a head-spinning second quarter and cruised to a 30-0 shutout of Susan Wagner on Staten Island.
“It’s very important to the kids because now they have some confidence,” longtime Canarsie coach Mike Camardese said. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ We dominated that game from the beginning to the end. There was never a chance Wagner could get back into the game.”
Canarsie (1-0) faces Brooklyn Tech next Saturday while Wagner (0-1) takes on John Adams.
Junior quarterback Geovanni Alexis threw three touchdowns, two to sophomore Antonio Snell and one to senior Elijah Cole. Canarsie forced four turnovers, recovering two fumbles and picking off a pair of passes. It would’ve been an even wider margin had the Chiefs not dropped two touchdown passes in the second half and had another score called back for a penalty.
“The kids were focused,” Camardese said. “Before the game, they were focused, during the game they were focused. After the game they were glad they won, but they know they made a lot of mistakes.”
Camardese was impressed with Alexis, who split time under center last year. He completed 5-of-11 passes for 74 yards and was picked off, but bounced back from each mistake.
“Last year he would’ve started making excuses, now he understands what it’s all about,” the coach said.
Camardese isn’t sure what to make of his team quite yet. He is still young – his top players Alexis, Snell and middle linebacker Donchervell Smith aren’t seniors – but is certainly pleased with how this season has begun compared to last year.
“I like the attitude of this team, we’re developing a good chemistry, which is the most important thing,” he said. “We played well all the way around today.”
No. 3 Fort Hamilton 46, Lehman 14: Tyrone Raymond had two touchdown runs and set up another with an 85-yard kickoff return, Stefon Hayles also found pay dirt twice on the ground in his varsity debut and Marvin Centeno connected on a 50-yard touchdown pass to Thaddeus Stroud as Fort Hamilton (1-0) extended its regular-season win streak to 33 in a row. The Tigers, who visit Campus Magnet next Saturday at 11 a.m., also blocked a punt and were the beneficiaries of a botched snap on a punt. Lehman is 0-1 and takes on FDR next weekend.
“We took advantage on some of their mistakes early on, we had good field position, which led to our touchdowns,” Fort Hamilton coach Danny Perez said. “They had issues with their punting game. We capitalized off those things.”
No. 9 Brooklyn Tech 44, John Adams 14: James Gales rushed for 110 yards on 10 carries with a touchdown, returned an interception 82 yards for a score and threw a 2-point conversion for Brooklyn Tech (1-0), which travels to Canarsie next week. Kevi Shyti was 7-of-11 passing for 53 yards with two touchdowns, including one on the ground. Suyeta Griffin returned an interception for a touchdown, Adonijah Smith had a kickoff return for a score and Kyvaune Brammer caught a 15-yard touchdown pass. Adams, which falls to 0-1, hosts Susan Wagner in Week 2.
Grand Street Campus 44, New Dorp 20: Cristian Pena was 3-of-5 for 84 yards and a touchdown, rushed for 34 yards and a score and returned a fumble 21 yards to pay dirt for Grand Street Campus (1-0), which hosts Midwood next week. Francisco Brown rushed for 163 yards on 16 carries with three touchdowns. New Dorp (0-1) faces Truman next Saturday at 11 a.m.
Flushing 37, FDR 0: Andrew King had three rushing touchdowns and Jason Gonzalez was 11-of-13 passing for 207 yards and two touchdowns for Flushing (1-0), which hosts Curtis next week. Deandre Lomax and Schlonzo Peterson each caught touchdowns. Andre Taylor had eight tackles and a forced fumble and Bromley Fairclough had an interception. FDR, which meets Lehman next week, is 0-1.