Clarkstown South Beat Mamaroneck Tigers At Mamaroneck High School

One of the biggest coaching clichés used is “All we can ask for is a chance to win the game," and that’s the exact situation the Mamaroneck Tigers varsity football team was presented with late in the fourth quarter against the visiting Clarkstown South Vikings on opening night under the lights at Memorial Field at Mamaroneck High School (MHS).

The numbers on the scoreboard during the late game drive read as such: 1:37 remaining, 4^th quarter, 1^st and 10 from Mamaroneck’s own 30-yardline, and Clarkstown South up 17-13. The Mamaroneck fans in attendance were all standing and screaming at the top of their lungs for the home team in anticipation of a thrilling late-game comeback but Clarkstown South’s defense wouldn’t oblige.

“Our special teams and defense really helped us out tonight and the defense found a way to hang on in the end,” Clarkstown South Coach Michael Scarpelli said. “We had trouble executing in the red zone offensively a lot tonight but a win is a win, so we’ll correct some things and get back to work.”

The defense came up with one last stand, not even allowing Mamaroneck—who had no time-outs during their final possession—to get past the 50-yardline. A big sack on Mamaroneck quarterback Parker Thelander with nearly 30 seconds to go wasted precious seconds and halted any comeback chances as Clarkstown South held on for the 17-13 win in yesterday’s Section 1 Class AA matchup.

“We had some costly mistakes like a touchdown run called back and our lack of execution in spots really hurt us tonight,” Mamaroneck Head Coach Anthony Vitti said.

In the first half, both defenses did a stellar job of keeping the opposing offense out of the end-zone and the only points scored were from the leg of Clarkstown South kicker Shane Cronin, who went a perfect 3-for-3 on field goal attempts during the game.

Clarkstown South’s offense came alive after switching to more of a wildcat formation with second string quarterback Thomas Lent Jr. (13 carries, 145 yards, 1 rushing td) leading the charge. Lent kept the ball many times and wore the Mamaroneck defense down with his powerful north and south running abilities. He scored Clarkstown South’s lone touchdown of the game—along with the two-point conversion—late in the third quarter on a six-yard run to make things 14-0 at that point.

“Today our offense was pretty weak and it was our defensive and special teams units who carried us,” Lent Jr. said. “We need to make a lot of improvements but we have the potential to be good and I think we did a better job of showing that in the second half.”

Mamaroneck’s offensive production mostly came from senior running back Brett Poniros who finished the game with 114 yards rushing and two tds on 14 carries. Poniros scored both of his touchdowns in the fourth quarter for Mamaroneck and really tried to will his team to a season opening win.

“We really came out slow in the first half and then turned it up in the second half but a few bounces just didn’t go our way,” said Poniros. “It wasn’t just me, all of our guys played hard today and I think the team you saw in the second half is what you will see more of each week.”

Clarkstown South players were playing with new concussion proof helmets and a scary moment took place when Clarkstown South wr/de Ruben Demosthene lay motionless for a few minutes after being in on a tackle during a kickoff towards the end of the third quarter.

“I thought it went well with the new helmets tonight and the guys really liked them. He [Ruben] had a little stinger and maybe the helmet helped with alleviating some of the blow,” Scarpelli said.