Kennedy coaching staff and players celebrate their win against Curtis. (Erin Edwards)
John F. Kennedy arrived on Staten Island looking for a fight. It left with its biggest win in four seasons.
“I told the boys all week this is gonna be a bar room brawl – bottom line,” Knights coach Andy Lancberg said. “It’s got nothing to do with Xs and Os. It’s gonna be about who punches who in the face and who gets up and punches right back. “
Led by a gritty defensive effort, Kennedy beat Curtis, 16-14, yesterday in PSAL City Championship division football in St. George. The Knights won a combined four games the last two seasons, but are now 3-2 after three straight victories.
“We’re changing the mentality of this program right now,” second-year Kennedy coach Andy Lancberg said. “The mentality wasn’t winning when I got here and we didn’t win last year. Now I’m hoping that the whole mentality is down the tubes and we got this one.”
It has started with defense, the hallmark of the program that is tied for second all time with Curtis and Bayside with five PSAL city titles. Curtis (3-2) had 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line down two points midway through the fourth quarter and Kennedy turned the Warriors away empty with a tenacious goal-line stand.
Nathaniel Feliz sacked Curtis quarterback Prince Dukes for a 1-yard loss on first down, the Knights huge line smothered Joshua Artis on second down after a 1-yard gain and on third down, following a false start penalty, Dukes threw incomplete in the back of the end zone. On fourth down from the 6, Dukes was intercepted by Feliz, who was a disruptive force all day.
“Defense won the game today,” said the linebacker with the Troy Polamulu-like hairstyle and intensity.
Kennedy allowed just one offensive touchdown. The other was a 94-yard interception return by Carl Taylor that gave Curtis a 14-0 with 7:25 left in the second quarter. The Warriors would not score again.
With six seconds left before the half, Romario Dillion ran for a 3-yard touchdown. The senior running back added a 5-yard score with 11:51 remaining and then took a direct snap to unbreak a 14-all tie and give Kennedy the lead for good.
Lancberg knows how tough it is coming onto Staten Island and pulling out a victory. He was an assistant at Port Richmond under Lou Vesce for three seasons before getting hired at Kennedy. Ironically, it was his old team that handed the Knights their first loss in Week 1 on a kickoff return for a touchdown in the closing seconds.
If not for that, Lancberg’s team would be 4-1 right now and being talked about among the league’s elite. It’s a far cry from a 1-8 season followed by a 3-6 campaign last year. But the coach is not 100 percent happy. Kennedy was inside the Curtis 30-yard line three times in the first half and came away empty. The Knights dominated time of possession in the first half, yet went into the break down a score.
“It’s gonna get cleared up,” Lancberg said. “It has to. If we’re gonna go where we want to go, it better.”
Clearly, the offense is still catching up to the defense. But led by Feliz, the latter was all Kennedy needed in the second half.
“He was their guy,” said Curtis coach Pete Gambardella, whose top running back Kevin Austin sat most of the game with the flu. “We knew that from watching the film. We knew that he was in there and he was coming from all over the place.”
Stopping it was a different story.
“In the second half, we outhit them,” highly touted two-way lineman Francisco Mendez said. “We buried them.”
And Kennedy is back to life.
