It was 3rd-and-14 from the Curtis 44-yard line and Andy McCoy knew the ball was coming his way. The junior running back/wide receiver simply wanted to slowly look his first varsity reception into his hands and possibly pick up a first down.
“I had to do something with it,” he said.
Boy, did he ever.
McCoy took a middle screen from quarterback Tynell Brown and 56 yards and a few well-timed blocks later he was in the end zone. He also put the game away late in the fourth quarter, scooting 39 yards to pay dirt to seal the Warriors’ 28-12 victory over Lincoln in Brooklyn. All told, he accumulated 156 total yards.
“It was perfect,” he said of his debut. “It went how I wanted it to go.”
His teammates felt the same way, particularly the holdovers from last year’s team. The 2008 Warriors were, of course, upset by Beach Channel in the opening round of the postseason, a setback that sent shockwaves through the five boroughs.
“We took this to the heart,” said star defensive end Dominique Easley, who had two sacks, of the season opener. “It meant everything to us.”
Curtis coach Peter Gambardella hasn’t shied away from touching on the subject, with his players or the media. It was one of the first things he told them after the rousing victory, that he was proud of them for bouncing back.
Yes, bouncing back from a loss nine months ago.
“We have to learn from our history,” the coach said.
Gambardella was pleased with his basically brand new offense as a whole. Besides wide receiver James Pon Pon and Easley, his tight end, none of his starters entered Saturday with any varsity experience.
The remade offensive line featured four players that had never, in fact, played the position before. Shifty running back Shaquan Coles, who scored on a 32-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and amassed 166 yards on the ground, and Brown (119 yards passing), the first-year signal-caller, are both first-time starters and former backups for Curtis (0-1). It was McCoy’s first varsity game as well.
Gambardella felt they were often one block away from breaking off longer runs and a few inches from connecting on several downfield passes. It was just a matter of a new group going through growing pains.
“We’ve got some guys out there that are gonna make some plays,” Gambardella said.
The defense, led by heavily recruited Easley, was nothing short of dominant. They sacked Vital six times, two by defensive end James Timmins who took advantage of the frequent double teams Easley drew, and held the Railsplitters to an anemic 45 rushing yards. Linebacker Kassim Forbes also picked off Vital, returning the errant throw 65 yards for a score just 1:15 before the end of the first half, to extend the Warriors lead to 20-6 by the break.
The only points Lincoln (0-1) created came midway through the fourth quarter when slot receiver Ramil Mammadov snuck behind the defense for a 64-yard gain, setting up Vital’s four-yard keeper. The Railsplitters scored their other touchdown on Vernon Hodges’ first-quarter, 85-yard kickoff return.
While the victory did alleviate some of the anguish of the early end to last year, it didn’t completely eradicate the scars.
Easley, who didn’t play in the loss to Beach Channel because of an shoulder injury, said he still hasn’t gotten past the pain of that November afternoon. No matter how many regular-season victories the Warriors pile up, it won’t go away.
“Not until we get to the championship game,” he said. “It will stay in our minds.”
