Scholastic Roundup: There’s a real gridiron battle in Brooklyn

November 15, 2024 Andy Furman

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It is quite the battle in Public Schools Athletic League 3-A football, with the Tigers of Fort Hamilton High School and Brooklyn Tech’s Engineers both deadlocked with 7-1 league marks.

South Shore and Curtis High Schools remain undefeated in 4-A with 8-0 records, with Erasmus Hall close with their 7-1 won-loss record.

Transit Tech High is alone in 1-A with a perfect 8-0 slate and Eagle Academy for Men tops 2-A with their 8-0 record.

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Fort Hamilton topped Franklin K. Lane last week, 36-28 as junior quarterback Aidan Farley passed for three touchdowns – he was 19-for-28 for 207 yards. Harold “Trey” Marshall, a freshman, ran for two scores – a seven-yard run and a 27-yarder.

Transit Tech whitewashed Evander Childs, 44-0 and plays at George Washington, Sunday (Nov. 17th). The Flying Dutchmen of Erasmus Hall won their fourth-straight, beating Lincoln 28-7 last week, and meet Eagle Academy, Saturday (Nov. 16th). South Shore High drubbed New Utrecht, 56-8 last week, and the Vikings play at Lincoln, Saturday. The Engineers of Brooklyn Tech had a 21-20 squeaker over Randolph Campus and face Bryant, Saturday.

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Claremont International High School and Manhattan Comprehensive split their regular-season contests, but it was Claremont knocking off Comprehensive, 6-4 last week to win the PSAL MPL girls soccer championship, at Frederick Douglass Playground, Manhattan. It marked back-to-back titles for Claremont. Gabriela Guerrero Mejia scored the fifth, and want proved to be the winning goal, for Claremont. Solano Tixteco scored a hat-trick for Manhattan Comprehensive.
The Manhattan Comprehensive boys met their Claremont counterparts last week for the PSAL title at Randalls Island. Manhattan Comprehensive won in overtime – on a Bejholn Alerte penalty kick, 1-0.

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Kyle Neptune was a member of the 2003 Brooklyn Friends School State Championship team, recording a school record in points with 1,650. He played collegiate basketball at Lehigh under Billy Taylor where he was a member of the Mountain Hawks’ 2004 NCAA Tournament team.

On April 20, 2022 – following Jay Wright’s retirement — he was named Villanova’s head coach. Today, he is feeling some heat. After struggling against Lafayette in last week’s opener, it got worse when Villanova lost to Columbia, 90-80. For the record, Columbia’s Lions do not have much of a roar – they’ve won a total of 59 games over the last seven seasons. Neptune is now 35-34 at Villanova. For Columbia, this was the first win over a Big East program since 2012, when the Lions beat Villanova, 75-57. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa was the star for Columbia with 22 points and a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line.

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Aaniya Telford, a St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn junior via Fontbonne Hall Academy, grabbed eight rebounds in the Bears 92-35 season-opening victory over the City College of New York last Friday at The Hill Center. Marcedes Perez led the Bears with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting.

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The Brooklyn College women dropped their season basketball opener on the road at Stockton University (Galloway, N.J), 56-42, Saturday. Alina Estrella, a graduate student via James Madison High School, led Brooklyn with a team-high 11 points to go along with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.

The Brooklyn men dropped a 61-59 heartbreaker in the final seconds against New Jersey City University’s Knights in Jersey City, Saturday. Malik Dale, a senior transfer from Bronx Community College, led the way for Brooklyn with 14 points; fellow senior Stephon McGill added 10 points and six rebounds.

Brooklyn College grad student Frank Ferrante, became the college’s first-ever Runner-of-the-Year, as announced by the City University of New York Athletic Conference. First-year head coach, Eric Schrick was named the conference Coach of the Year. Azizjon Sharifov, Yasin Gordon, and Samuel Dufner all earned CUNYAC All-Star accolades for finishing in the top-15 at this year’s CUNYAC Championships. In addition, Wali Mohammad was named to the conference’s Sportsmanship Team. The Bulldogs took third-place at the 2024 Championships at Van Cortlandt Park – they will compete in the NCAA Regional Championships, Saturday (Nov. 16th) at Stockton University.

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Senior Mark Katsev was a multi-sport athlete at Leon M. Goldstein High School, competing for the varsity water polo, swimming, and soccer teams —he was team captain for all three squads. He played club for Greenwich Aquatics, receiving the Grit Award in 2019 and was an Academic All-American for 2020-21. He led his Cadet team at ODP 2019 in scoring with 17 goals over four games, and helped the 16U team at the 2019 Junior Olympics to a sixth-place finish, the highest placing for any team outside of California in that age group.

The Fordham University senior is a member of the Rams’ nationally-ranked water polo team that started the season a perfect 24-0. The Rams have already topped Princeton – an NCAA tournament semi-finalist last year– and Harvard. They recently completed a West Coast tour against the likes of the Pacific, UC-Santa Barbara, and San Jose State. In the most recent NCAA RPI poll, they have been ranked as high as No. 2 in the weekly coach’s poll. The Rams’ roster has players from Hungary, Italy, Malta, Greece, Spain, and France, as well as one Brooklynite.

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Senior Amaya Dowdy led the Northeast Conference with 24 blocks – 1.8 per-game – last season for LIU. She scored 24 points to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks as the Lady Sharks topped Cal State Fullerton, 63-52 for their first win of the season, Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn.
Six Sharks scored double-figures as LIU’s men opened their home schedule with an impressive 102-42 victory over Pratt Institute. Senior forward Jamal Fuller led all scorers with 19 points in just 17 minutes of action. Jalen “Roe” Lee added 18 points. Malachi Davis chipped in 13 and a game-high nine assists. Shadrack Lasu grabbed nine rebounds in the win.
The victory marked LIU’s first home-opening win since 2022, when they defeated Mount Saint Vincent, 111-50.

The LIU football Sharks host St. Francis University in their home finale, Saturday (Nov. 16th) at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium. The Sharks topped Sacred Heart, 28-7 last week in Fairfield as quarterback Ethan Greenwood scored two touchdowns. Pat Bowen rushed for 70 yards, and Michael Love and Ludovick Choquette also found the end zone for the Sharks.

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An historic 2024 campaign for the St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn men’s soccer team came to an end last week, when they fell to No. 1 St. Joseph’s (Long Island) 1-0 in the Skyline Conference Championship semifinal. The Bears finish with an 8-7-3 overall record and a 6-3-2 mark in Skyline play; both are the most in a single-season in program history and under head coach Adam Brunengo.

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Junior standout Shelly Quezada scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked two shots but it was not enough as the Medgar Evers women fell in their basketball opener to Farmingdale State College, 58-39, last week.

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Giovanna Lisa led the Pratt Institute women’s cross-country team to a fourth-place finish and Justin Cai was the top finisher for the men at the 2024 Atlantic East Conference Cross Country Championships, Saturday at the Hudson Valley Sportsdome.
Lisa’s time of 27:55.6 was good for 13th place in the field of 41 and earning the first All-Atlantic East honor in their first year in the league. Sarah Cawley (29:47.4) and Reeshane Villkarama (29:56.7) finished back-to-back in 20th and 21st. Finn Powell captured 25th in 31:29.7 and Kathleen Chen completed the scoring in 28th in 32:13.3.

Cai turned in a top-20 finish for the men in 19th overall clocking in at 30:48.9. Andrew Kanga finished in 37th in 36:21.0, Andrew Weiss took 41st in 38:13.8 and Henry Domst placed 44th in 40:04.8 as the Cannoneers did not score in the team competition.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] ; Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR