There are well over 4,000 students at Fort Hamilton, but that doesn’t mean anything to head football coach Vinny Laino.
“Every year, it’s the same thing,” Laino said. “We play teams that have twice as many players as we do.”
This year, however, might be a little different. While Laino consistently molds the 25 Tigers at his disposal into playoff contenders, they may be more than that now.
For the second time in three weeks, Fort Hamilton beat a perennial championship contender. Two weeks ago, it was a win at Wagner. Yesterday, the Tigers held off Canarsie, 12-6.
“Nobody ever thinks of us as being a football power,” said Labinot Hakanjin, who plays on both the offensive and defensive lines for the Tigers (4-0, 3-0 in the PSAL). “We’re trying to change that. We know other teams might have more talent and are bigger, but we work harder than any other team.”
Hakanjin had seven tackles and a sack, and he got plenty of defensive help from Kendell Boynton (14 tackles) and Tom Larsen.
“Every day we try to get more guys to try out for the team,” Larsen said. “But they come and see how much work there is and they don’t come back. They would rather play basketball or baseball.”
Michael Meggett, a distant cousin of former Jet and Giant Dave Meggett, caught three passes for 125 yards.
In the second quarter, Meggett caught a quick pass from QB Anwar Isaacs, had three Canarsie defenders bounce off of him and raced in for a 38-yard touchdown, just 34 seconds before the end of the first half.
Then with 6 minutes to go in the third quarter, Meggett had a pass tip off of him and into the arms of Jonathan Perea, who scored from 39 yards out to give the Tigers a 12-0 lead.
Canarsie (2-2, 1-2) cut into the lead when Jeffrey Collins ran it in from 1 yard away, but each time Fort Hamilton was threatened after that, its defense rose to the occasion.