Erasmus Hall barely holds on to beat South Shore

October 14, 2014 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Two weeks ago Erasmus Hall picked up its biggest win of the season when it knocked off Lincoln High School. But when the Dutchmen walked off the field, coach Danny Landberg had words of warning rather than praise.

“Watch out for the trap,” Landberg warned after beating Lincoln. “We have to play South Shore next week, and they have a good program. Just because we beat Lincoln doesn’t mean we have beaten South Shore by just stepping out onto the field.”

Landberg’s words were close to prophetic as Erasmus Hall (6-0) did not take South Shore (4-2) seriously, barely managing a 14-12 come-from-behind victory at Sid Luckman Field on Sunday.

“I think we played terrible today,” Erasmus quarterback Aaron Grant admitted after the close win. “I’m not happy about this win at all. We just weren’t focusing.”

South Shore did shock Erasmus Hall right away.

The first kickoff of the game was recovered by the Vikings after one of the Dutchmen let the ball bounce off him while he was seemingly not paying attention. That led to a two-yard touchdown run by Timothy Bowers to put South Shore up 6-0 early.

When Erasmus Hall finally got the ball, its center snapped the ball over Grant’s head on the first play of the drive. South Shore’s Omar Jarrett recovered the turnover and ran it back 27 yards to make it 12-0. Erasmus Hall was then in a hole and wasted two offensive opportunities.

“This was a trap game, and we fell into it,” said Erasmus receiver Keon Gravenhise. “I’m not going to lie, we came out here and we totally doubted them. We thought that we were going to blow them out from the start and didn’t take them seriously.”

Luckily for Erasmus Hall, the Dutchmen happen to have some of the best defense in New York City, and Deonte Roberts and company went to work holding South Shore to just 12 points, while giving the offense time to get back into the game. It didn’t take very long, as Grant scored on a one-yard run late in the first quarter to make it 12-7 following a big pass to Jahsen Wint.

The game was quiet for a while as Erasmus’ defense continued to work. Roberts, Tysene Foster, Duran Campbell, Giancarlo Jean Joseph, Aaron John and Andre Francis all picked up sacks along the way. Finally, midway through the third quarter, Grant found Gravenhise with an 11-yard pass to give E-Hall a 14-12 lead.

“By that point we all knew that we had to pick it up,” Gravenhise said. “They’re good, but we knew we were better so being down motivated us and I think we got our focus back.”

South Shore didn’t go quietly though and had a couple of opportunities in the fourth quarter. Its best opportunity occurred with one minute left in the game when the Vikings had a first-and-goal at the nine yard-line. If they had a kicker they could have won the game right there, but instead Erasmus Hall’s defense stopped them at the goal-line to pick up the win.

“We played an awful, sloppy game,” Landberg said. “It was really bad mentally, our worst game of the year. But we won and I’m glad it happened. They’re smelling themselves and hopefully they’ll realize that they can’t take anyone lightly from now on.”

Erasmus Hall will immediately be tested on how much it learned against South Shore with another “trap” game coming up this weekend against Fort Hamilton, a talented team better than its 3-3 record indicates.