Canarsie turned in its best overall performance of the season last Friday, and laid rival Midwood low.
The Chiefs could do no wrong behind a dominant running game in a convincing 26–0 victory against the host Hornets on the road in Public School Athletic League football on Sept 19.
It is the Chiefs’ second-straight win after a season-opening loss to New Utrecht. Canarsie has won 18 of the last 19 meetings between the rival schools that are four miles apart.
“I’m very happy,” said Canarsie coach Kyle Allen about his team’s play. “We got a quarterback playing well. We’re not making a lot of mistakes. We just got to keep grinding.”
The backfield for the Chiefs (2–1) had a night to remember. Junior running back Shawn Cabbell got the ball rolling on the game’s first drive as he broke away from Midwood’s defense for a 49-yard run and score.
Classmate Palyte Stubbs, who ran for 120 yards on 13 carries, followed it up with two straight running scores of his own. The first came in the first quarter on an 18-yard run. The other came on a three-yard dash to the end zone in the second quarter. Senior running back Jeffrey Pyle had the final score of the game with a 24-yard touchdown run late in the fourth to put the contest well out of reach.
“The whole team played well,” Stubbs said. “We have been working all summer for this.”
The defense was just as much a factor as the offense. Junior linebacker Jesse Rivera, with his two interceptions of Midwood’s quarterback Nicholas Falzone, led Canarsie’s defense, which forced four Hornets turnovers on the day.
“We did a fantastic job,” Rivera said.
The game for Midwood (1–2) would be best summed up on two plays in the second half. Midway though the third quarter, Midwood’s junior running back Carl Colas broke away from the Canarsie defense and it looked like he would put the Hornets at the two-yard line on a 78-yard run. But that was brought back on a holding call and the drive went nowhere after that. Later, the Hornets drove down the field in the fourth quarter to the Canarsie four-yard line, but then fumbled the ball.
“I felt like we could have tried harder this game,” Colas said. “We weren’t focused today.”
