The only thing the Grand Street football team remembers about the best season in program history is the zero that ended it.
The Wolves squad established itself as a premier team in the Public School Athletic League’s city conference last year and reached its first-ever semifinal, but fell 27–0 to eventual city champion Abraham Lincoln.
The players haven’t forgotten the feeling of being shut out in the biggest game of their careers.
“We lost 27–zip, and we were on zip and we didn’t score,” said Rutgers-bound receiver Taysir Mack. “That hangs over our heads all day. We think about that. We don’t want that to ever happen again, so we work to make sure that never happens again.”
Grand Street is hoping to have no issues scoring this year since it features arguably best offense in tri-state area. Mack will be paired up with fellow Scarlet Knights commit Ahmed Bah, a Holy Cross transfer. Fort Hamilton senior transfer Sharif Harris-Legree will be at quarterback. The speedy Rhamel Ashby returns at running back and slot receiver, sharing the workload on the ground with Jahquese Morris, Justin Phillip, and Gibbs Seraphin. They are still in search of the bruising back it lost in Eugene Qualls.
Wolves coach Bruce Eugene plans on giving seven different wide receivers playing time in his high-octane attack. Kyle Brisfere, Jamar Crum Bryan Van der Cruez, Tristan Jeanniton, and Christ the King senior transfer Terrell Miller will all be lined up out wide. Eugene wants to keep his top guys as fresh as possible to make them even harder to contain.
“You can’t stop us,” Mack said. “We are a well-oiled machine. Like coach says, ‘If one is down another one goes.’ We are nonstop. We know our job and get it done.”
They will work behind an offensive line that returns just one starter, but does not lack in size or talent. Kenskey Celestin will anchor a line that also features Solomon McDougal, Matt Soriano, and Jorge Minya. Eugene thinks he has an up-and-coming star in Chris Chernak, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound sophomore.
“We have some talent up there,” Eugene said.
While the Wolves return a number of star players on offense, it graduated its defensive leaders in defensive tackle Kamaal Seymour, who is at Rutgers, and defensive back Edwin Lee. But there is still plenty of confidence in this year’s group, led by Phillips at safety.
Juniors Olakunle Fatukasi and Kordell Wray lead an experienced linebacker core and a lot of expected of corner backs Dennis Peterson and Christ the King transfer Tyler Ross. Its top pass rusher is Flushing transfer Bromwell Roache, who is joined on a beefed up defensive line by Christ the King import Angel Ortiz, Hemyer Hernandez, and Joseph Jimenez.
They are part of a roster chock full of talent that Grand Street believes can get it over the hump to bring home the programs’ first-ever city title. They weren’t happy with just getting the program recognition and reaching the semifinals.
“Last year that wasn’t our goal,” Ashby said. “We were trying to win it all.”
In order to finally do so, the team can’t get caught up in its regular season success like it did late last year. That took off the edge it carried into the playoffs, and Eugene said his players had a deer-in-the-headlights quality going into the shutout game against Lincoln. The Grand Street players learned from that, because no one let them forget.
“This is definitely the year we have to put it together,” Eugene said. “We remind the kids pretty much every practice, every workout that the last time we played football we lost 27–0.”
