During timeouts and plays off, Erasmus Hall’s Curtis Samuel heads to the sideline to catch his breath, taking pumps of a small, purple inhaler.
After Samuel’s performance Sunday afternoon, it was the opposing Warriors defense that was left catching their breath.
Erasmus Hall defeated host Curtis, 18-14, in the two teams’ PSAL City Championship division opener on Staten Island. Samuel ran for 113 yards on 10 carries, while scoring the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The Dutchmen trailed the Warriors 14-10 with time winding down in the final quarter. Curtis lined up for a punt on fourth-and-nine, but their punter, Milton Franklin, fumbled the snap. He picked up the ball and attempted to run for the first down, but came up a yard short. Giving Erasmus Hall a first down from their own 41-yard-line.
On the next play, Samuel wasted no time putting his team ahead, and took a wide-receiver reverse 59 yards to pay dirt with 5:51 remaining.
“The play was a reverse to me. My team had wonderful blocking on the outside and as soon as I turned the corner, I saw the outside linebacker overflowing so I cut it back inside,” Samuel said. “The receivers never give up their blocks, so I was then able to take it to the outside and saw daylight.”
Samuel gave Erasmus Hall their first lead of the game, and would also help in protecting that lead.
Curtis had posession down four and was driving, looking to retake the lead. With the ball placed on the 26-yard-line, in a fourth and long situation and the clock under a minute, Curtis’ quarterback, Shane Daneluzzi (3-10 40-yards, INT) dropped back to pass. He heaved a pass down the left sideline, only for it to be deflected by none other than Samuel.
“It felt really good to contribute on both sides of the ball,” Samuel said. “We needed to win this game.”
The two other scores for Erasmus Hall (1-0) came from their co-quarterbacks. With 4:15 left in the second quarter, Jonathan Samerson (3 carries 49-yards, TD) ran 39 yards for Hall’s first score. Then with only seconds remaining in the first half, Mat Domina (6-16 56-yards, TD) threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Elijah Davis to make it 14-12.
Samerson also had two interceptions on the defensive side.
Although they escaped this matchup with a victory, Erasmus Hall head coach Danny Landberg felt his team did not play up to his standards.
“It wasn’t pretty but we got the job done,” Landberg said of the win. “We’re lucky to get out of here with the victory. We didn’t do a good job at all.”
Curtis (0-1) jumped out to 14-0 lead in the second quarter behind the stellar running of senior captain Kevin Austin, who rushed for 160 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns. The second, an 89-yard run down the sideline in the second quarter, swung the momentum in Curtis’ favor. But they would fail to score again, as holding penalties wiped out two more impressive long touchdown runs by Austin.
“I can’t say anything bad about our effort,” Curtis coach Pete Gambardella said. “You just can’t give a team like Erasmus second chances, and we gave a lot of them. They capitalized on them.”