Automotive wide receiver Gregory Dominick makes a reception. (Damion Reid)
Like his players, Automotive coach Haseeb Khawaja was upset after Sunday’s heartbreaking, 15-14 Cup division championship game loss to South Bronx.
That the final margin was decided on a 26-yard Joseph Garcia field goal midway through the fourth quarter, the first in Phoenix history, didn’t add to the anguish. Khawaja had a simple reaction following the loss at Midwood Athletic Complex in Brooklyn.
“It just came down to two equally balanced teams,” he said. “The team that made the fewest amount of mistakes was going to win, and that was South Bronx obviously. We had one more turnover than they did, and that really was the difference in the game.”
Indeed, running back James Clark’s fumble on the Pistons’ first drive to start the second half – at the Phoenix 15-yard line – was a killer. Automotive had driven 65 yards in 15 plays, but the senior lost the ball while trying to get extra yards. South Bronx (12-0) responded by driving the length of the field to set up Garcia’s kick.
Automotive (11-1) had its chances in the final quarter, but failed to deliver. Arbely Soto picked off quarterback Maurice Edwards with 15 seconds remaining, ending the Pistons’ remarkable season.
“I’m extremely disappointed, obviously I would rather have won than lost, but I have to be there for my guys, I have to be there for my coaching staff,” Khawaja said. “We’re focusing on the positives and how much we’ve accomplished for a program as young as we are.”
Just two years ago, Automotive was winless, at 0-10, in its inaugural varsity season. The Brooklyn squad improved to 6-3 last year, and in 2009 ripped through the regular season undefeated, a credit, the coach said, to the team’s core seniors – Clark, two-way linemen Harrison Fontenelle and David Genis and wide receiver Zorey Lewis – and the development of the JV program, which went 6-2 this fall.
The loss, however demoralizing, was hard-fought. Automotive held the high-scoring Phoenix, who had scored 442 points in their previous 11 games, to just one offensive touchdown.
“I’m just disappointed that group of kids that have played so hard and so well for two, three, four years, didn’t get a chance to reach that pinnacle they wanted so badly,” Khawaja said.
The future remains bright. Of the 38 players on the roster, only 11 return. But Edwards, along with several other vital contributors, is back. With that in mind, Khawaja said the Pistons plan to move up to the Bowl division, a decision that was made earlier this year.
“As far as the coaching staff is concerned, we have nothing left to prove at the 1 division level,” he said. “We need to improve as a program and get further recognition for our school as a football school, and the only way that is going to happen is by moving up.”
“We are,” he added firmly, “moving up.”