PSAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Tottenville 28

Canarsie 24

His coaches and teammates were unanimous in their praise, all saying that there may be no better playmaker in the PSAL than Tottenville’s Diego Oquendo.

“He’s done it all year for us,” said junior quarterback Frank Messina. “He’s probably the best player in the league, and he definitely is when everything is on the line.”

And never was it on the line more for the Pirates than it was in yesterday’s PSAL title game against Canarsie. For the first time this season, they trailed in the fourth quarter. So it came as no surprise to coach Jim Munson that Oquendo, a WR/DB, would wind up making perhaps the most important play of the season.

“Whenever we need a clutch play, he’s the guy that we go to,” Munson said, after he saw Oquendo catch a three-yard touchdown pass with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter that put the Pirates up for good, as they held on for a 28-24 win at Midwood Field. “We want to get the ball to him as much as possible.”

When those messages were relayed to Oquendo as he celebrated Tottenville’s first championship since 1997, he vehemently disagreed.

“That’s not true, that’s not true,” Oquendo said. “We’re a team and nobody is more important than anyone else. That’s how we got to this game.”

Normally he’d be right, but not yesterday.

Oquendo did everything. In the opening minutes, he broke through to block a Canarsie punt, picked it up and ran into the end zone to put the Pirates (13-0) up 7-0. After Canarsie cut a 14-0 deficit to 14-12 in the third quarter, it was Oquendo who reached up with one hand, grabbed a Messina pass and raced in for a 54-yard score.

“That was luck,” said Oquendo, who probably got away with a shove-off on the play. “I don’t know how that happened.”

And it was Oquendo who scored the game-winner after the Chiefs took their first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter on an Elijah Fleming 14-yard TD run, which was followed by yet another failed two-point conversion by the Chiefs.

“Maybe today I did a lot, but that doesn’t matter,” said Oquendo, whose team was supported on the sidelines by Miami Dolphin – and Tottenville alum – Adewale Ogunleye. “Every game it’s someone different and every week we all get it done.”

But the Pirates never relied on dramatics quite as much as they did yesterday. After blitzing through their first three playoff opponents, Tottenville finally got a challenge.

Jonathan Pitt-Coombs, who was nearly unstoppable throughout the year, was slowed by Canarsie’s tough defense. Prior to the half, he was stopped twice from the one, allowing the Chiefs to go in trailing just 14-6.

“I was really upset with myself,” Pitt-Coombs said. “I thought I should have gotten in.”

Then, on the final play of the third quarter, with Tottenville closing in on another score, Pitt-Coombs fumbled a pitch from Messina. The ball was recovered by Canarsie;s Ronnell Cummings, setting up Fleming’s score that gave Canarsie its first lead.

Even when they trailed, however, Oquendo’s confidence never wavered.

“Coach Munson told us at breakfast today that there was no way we would lose,” Oquendo said. “That’s what I kept thinking and I just tried to find a way to make sure he was right.”

That didn’t stop with the touchdown. Oquendo also broke up a pass on Canarsie’s last drive, allowing the Pirates to run out the clock.

“When we had the ball and were losing, I knew that was going to be our final chance,” Messina said. “And I knew we were going to make the most of it.”