Howard Langley insists he wasn’t playing possum. In August, when asked of his expectations, the DeWitt Clinton football coach said he wasn’t sure if he had a playoff team.
Fast forward a few months and the red-hot Governors are one win shy of reaching the City Championship division semifinals for the first time in Langley’s eight seasons running the program.
“I didn’t know what I had,” Langley said. “I had a team with a lot of weird personalities as kids and they were all the better players. I literally had no quarterback until this kid [Ryan Camilo] popped up. For what we do, the quarterback is the dude.”
Camilo, a Cardinal Hayes transfer, has certainly been the “dude” for Clinton. He’s adjusted well to the Governors’ Wing-T attack, running for 792 yards and nine touchdowns during the regular season. He had arguably his best game last Saturday in the opening round of the playoffs, running for 120 yards and two touchdowns and throwing for another in a 34-18 win over No. 10 Port Richmond.
Langley actually knows Camilo’s dad well, but hadn’t seen him play for several years. Camilo, in fact, was supposed to attend Clinton, but opted for Hayes at the last minute instead.
He’s had plenty of help, teaming with bulldozing fullback Ashton McKenzie and playmaking receiver/running back Jeremiah Obeng-Agyapong. Led by defensive end Andy Foxe, outside linebacker Stefano Dawkins and middle linebacker Shane Valdivieso, Clinton’s defense has also come alive, pitching two shutouts to close the regular season.
Langley said the season turned in a Week 7 win at hated rival John F. Kennedy. It was defensive coordinator Alex Vega’s first time standing on the field at the school he used to coach at. Vega was fired unceremoniously two years ago and after the gutty 14-13 win, which snapped a two-game losing streak, he was in tears.
“That game was pivotal for us emotionally,” Langley said. “It gave us an extra boost. One of the goals of the season had been reached and you feel good about yourself and move on.”
Over the last three weeks, Clinton has outscored the opposition 102-18 and seems primed to take on defending champion Fort Hamilton. Langley has been to this point before, three times in his first seven seasons, only to fall short.
“This is the hump,” Langley said. “It’s very important. We would love, love to get the next one.”
Tilden in Bowl semis: Over the last two years, the only thing Tilden hasn’t really beaten is the power points system.
Last season, the Blue Devils didn’t make the playoffs despite a pretty strong résumé because they were 12 points out of the No. 4 spot. With the Bowl division postseason expanded to six teams this season, Tilden went 8-1 and still finished fourth. Coach Eric Waterman has been a major critic of the system and it seems to have bitten his team twice in two years.
“You could almost go undefeated and still not be ranked No. 1 or ranked accurately,” Waterman said. “It almost happened this year. We only had one loss. … Those things are no doubt fueling our guys. They were part of that team last year. They’re using that to catapult us into the playoffs.”
Tilden will meet top-seeded Madison Sunday and Waterman said he doesn’t mind being the underdog. But the result is a tossup. The Blue Devils lost just a single game, to August Martin, 14-12, in Week 2. Since then, they have been on a tear, led by 6-foot-2, 195-pound prototype quarterback Shawn Brathwaite, who has interest from UConn and Fordham. It’s his first season under center after playing wide receiver in 2010.
“He’s coming into his own,” Waterman said.
So is the program. The restructuring of the building into three separate schools hurt the Blue Devils for years, but now they have bcome one of the best teams in the Bowl. Waterman said he isn’t interested in moving up to the City Championship division yet; he wants to be a power in the Bowl and not move on to soon like some other teams have done, he said.
“If we win this year, it would definitely mean a lot to the campus itself, the entire school,” Waterman said. “Not just the football program itself, the entire school.”
Another sophomore steps up for E-Hall: Kahlil Lewin broke a bone in his foot last season playing on the junior varsity for Erasmus Hall and it didn’t heal properly, forcing him out of the first three games this season.
Since fellow sophomore Curtis Samuel went down with a broken leg in Week 5, though, Lewin has been integral in filling in running the ball, catching it and being a return man. In just six regular-season games, he ran for two touchdowns, caught another and returned a 65-yard touchdown to the house.
“He’s dynamic,” Landberg said.
The 5-foot-8, 175-pound speedster had 50 yards rushing on five carries with a pair of scores Saturday in No. 5 E-Hall’s 28-0 romp over No. 12 John F. Kennedy in the PSAL City Championship division first round. Lewin has been just what the Dutchmen have needed without Samuel. And they will have both of them the next two years.
“He’s been extremely important,” Landberg said.
Under-the-radar Duchenne thriving for Lincoln: It’s easy to overlook Denzel Duchenne. At 5-foot-5, 155 pounds, he looks more like a team manager than do-it-all star.
“He’s the smallest guy on the team, but he contributed the most pound for pound for his size,” Lincoln coach Shawn O’Connor said.
Each opponent has realized he can play, though often too late.
Duchenne has scored 15 touchdowns – four rushing, eight receiving, two on defense and one on a punt return– in helping the Railsplitters go 10-0 and reach the PSAL City Championship division quarterfinals.
Duchenne saw part-time duty out of the backfield last year, as standout running back Kareem Folkes’ backup. In the spring, O’Connor tried him at receiver and Duchenne picked up the position well. He has also starred at cornerback, with four interceptions. His ratio of touches to touchdowns is outstanding – eight of his 17 receptions have gone for scores and four of 15 carries. He’s also returned two of his four picks to the house.
“I thought he’d be a playmaker, but I didn’t think he would be like this,” O’Connor said. “He has just one speed. We have to calm him down sometimes in practice. In warm-ups, he dives all over the place.”
O’Connor thinks Duchenne can play college football, either in Division II or III, despite his size. He has solid grades and has shown he can compete at a high level this fall, on either side of the ball.
“He’s got explosive speed, great hands, great concentration,” the coach said. “What I’ve been most impressed with is defensively he’s coming up and sticking people.”
Fort Hamilton’s Thomas to remain under center: There is a chance Fort Hamilton junior Travon Reid Segure will return in Saturday’s PSAL City Championship division quarterfinals against No. 7 DeWitt Clinton, but he won’t be at quarterback. Tigers coach Danny Perez said senior Robert Thomas, the hulking fullback/middle linebacker who scored both of fourth-seeded Fort Hamilton’s touchdowns in its 16-15 win over No. 13 Sheepshead Bay last Saturday, will remain under center.
“Robert’s getting most of the snaps for now,” Perez said. “Robert played great. He was our MVP for that game.”
If Segure is back in action, he will play safety and wide receiver. Perez said it will likely be a game-time decision.