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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Curtis Samuel had to watch from the sideline as his high school career at Erasmus Hall came to an end.
The Ohio State-bound running back missed most of the fourth quarter with a severely sprained ankle as the defending champion Dutchmen drove down field trying to tie the score in the final minutes of the Public School Athletic League City conference football semifinals.
“I wanted to go back out there and fight with my team, but the way my ankle was feeling I couldn’t really put pressure on it,” said Samuel, who scored three times.
Second-seeded Erasmus was without its big playmaker, down eight points as it reached the Tottenville 30-yard line. It gained just a yard after that and saw Daiquan Gwyn’s fourth down pass to Darin Peart fall incomplete to end a wild 41–33 defeat to the No. 3 Pirates at Sid Luckman Field on Saturday afternoon. The game was a rematch of last year’s city title game.
Samuel recorded 180 yards of total offense, including 126 on the ground on just nine carries, but he couldn’t help get the final 30 need to keep the season alive.
“It was frustrating not being with my team for the last couple of minutes of the game,” Samuel said. “It’s hurting me. I had faith in my team that we could do it at the end. We just came up a little bit short.”
In his absence, it was Peart who gave Erasmus (10–2) a chance to tie the score late. The senior answered a Tottenville touchdown by returning the ensuing kickoff 84 yards for a score. Khalil Lewin (16 carries, 84 yards) added a two-point conversion run and the Dutchmen were down just 41–13 with 4:55 left to play in the game.
“I just felt like I had to make a play for my team,” Peart said. “I’ve never seen that part of me. It just came out.”
He believes pass interference should have been called on the game’s final play. Peart said a Tottenville defender hit him in the chest with his helmet, causing him to fall and be unable to make the grab.
It was Erasmus’s poor pass defense, something that reared itself in a regular-season loss to Lincoln, that was its undoing. Tottenville quarterback Joshua Rainey, who scored five times, dominated all afternoon.
He completed six of 12 passes for 226 yards and threw touchdown passes for 54, 39 and 57 yards to Devin Martin (five catches, 216 yards). Rainey also added 71 rushing yards and two rushing scores. Pirates’ running back Andrew Russo carried the ball 29 times for 103 yards. The Pirates (10–2) had better offensive balance than it showed when Erasmus beat Tottenville 21–7 to open the season.
“We were talking all week about how we have to throw the ball against them because they really can’t stop us,” Rainey said.
Added Dutchman coach Danny Landberg: “They got better as the season went on.”
Erasmus looked unbeatable early. Samuel picked off Rainey in the end zone on the opening drive and broke a 75-yard touchdown run. Samuel then ran 36-yards for a score to give Erasmus a 13-0 lead with 4:26 left in the first quarter. Tottenville responded by scoring 20 straight points to grab a 20-13 lead at the half.
“After we got two touchdowns everybody started relaxing and just let off the gas pedal,” Samuel said.
Even so, as Samuel walked out of the locker room, he couldn’t help but look back fondly on what he and his teammates accomplished during his career.
“I’m just going to miss this place,” Samuel said.