Taysir Mack was told by Grand Street coach Bruce Eugene to be patient — his time would come.
It wasn’t an easy thing to hear for the city’s best receiver, who is headed to Rutgers. Mack was held relatively quiet after a 21-yard touchdown grab on fourth down and 20 on the opening drive in the season’s biggest game to date on Oct. 9. He felt he could have done so much more through the first three quarters.
“On the sideline he was hollering to me, ‘Coach, I’m open. I’m open. I’m open,’ ” Eugene said. “I kept telling him, ‘Taysir we don’t want you use you right now. We are going to wait for the right time and we are going to use you.’ When I called it. He made the play.”
Mack, like he did against Fort Hamilton, made the big plays in the big moments versus Lincoln. He had three big grabs on the game-sealing drive in the fourth quarter. It is what stars do. The moment wasn’t too big for him in a 30-21 victory over two-time defending champion Abraham Lincoln last Friday night.
“That kid is a hell of a player,” Eugene said.
Mack caught a 19-yard slant on third down from the Grand Street 24-yard line with the Wolves up 22–21. On fourth and 16 from the Grand Street 46, he made the play of the game by getting free again over the middle for a 21-yard gain. Mack made five catches for 71 yards.
“I seen it open,” Mack said. “I said, ‘Coach, the safety is playing flat footed. He’s biting. He is on his heels. You watch, he is going to see the run. He is going to step up. Just throw the rock. I am going to catch it.’ ”
A 14-yard touchdown run by quarterback Sharif Harris-Legree capped the 12-play, 78-yard drive. It meant nothing without the two-point conversion, because Lincoln would be down just seven points. Instead there was Mack in a crowd, hauling in the two-point conversion pass to put Grand Street up 30–21 with 8:02 to play in the game.
“We expect that from Taysir,” Harris-Legree said.
He gives his teammates every reason to. Mack already had 40 catches for 530 yards and eight touchdowns in five games. No score was more critical than him breaking tackles and carrying two defenders in the end zone in a comeback win over Fort Hamilton in Week 2.
“The kid is obviously one of the better receivers in the city, and maybe even in the state,” said Lincoln coach Shawn O’Connor. “I thought he did a nice job. There were some zone issues later on in the game that the kid found the window.”
It is the kind of thing stars do to will their team to key victories. He was a great receiver a year ago, but he has taken his game to another level this year, and brought Grand Street along with him.
He didn’t huff and puff or pout when the ball wasn’t coming his way as much has he’d like. Mack instead trusted his coach. He just waited for his moment — and delivered.
That is what stars do.
