Roosevelt defeats Kingston in overtime
Tigers tie game late but Presidents’ win spoils homecoming
Kingston High forced overtime, but when it failed to score on its possession, a depleted Roosevelt squad went to a third quarterback option. And it immediately paid off. Junior backup Tyler VanSteenburgh slung a 20yard touchdown pass on the Presidents’ first play of OT to Nowah Rosado to win, 19-13, spoiling Kingston’s homecoming football game.
“He hasn’t worked once this year (at quarterback). He’s just a good athlete,” Roosevelt coach Brian Bellino said. “Once we got the stop on them in overtime, it was coach (Nick) Clair, who runs our offense, who said, ‘Let’s take a shot. Get Tyler in there and have him throw it up and we got an athletic wide receiver in Nowah Rosado.”
VanSteenburgh rolled out and found Rosado positioning himself just inside the end zone for the game-winner.
E.J. Budai ran for 67 yards and two TDs and Matt Amone rushed for 94 to lead (3-2) Roosevelt in the Section 9, Class AA game.
It spoiled an inspired performance by (0-5) Kingston, which tied the game with 2:22 left on JaVar Tinsley’s 3-yard run. An FDR defender got a hand on Jack McDonough’s
point-after kick, which sailed wide, to keep the game deadlocked. Kingston got the ball first in OT, but the Presidents held firm and McDonough missed on a 31-yard field goal try.
“It’s a great game to be in. You just hate to be in on the wrong side. Our kids played awesome,” said Kingston coach Nick Badalato, whose team had to forfeit last week’s homecoming at Monroe-Woodbury because of injuries and player suspensions.
“(Assistant) coach (Ken) Beesmer said this: They brought some dignity back from last week. I appreciated it and I’m sure the fans appreciated it,” Badalato said about the way his team played. “This was the first time they really believed at the end.”
Tinsley ran 21 times for 134 yards and two TDs and Chuck Robinson, playing quarterback, rushed 14 times for 129 yards to lead Kingston. The Tigers had not scored an offensive point this season, but that matter was settled in the first quarter. Kingston’s first drive stalled at the FDR 25, but the Tiger defense forced a three-and-out and the Tigers had the ball at midfield. Tinsley then snapped off a 30-yard run, setting up an 11-yard sweep that had his team leading 7-0. The lead lasted less than a minute. Two plays later, Budai raced 56 yards up the middle to tie.
Roosevelt went ahead midway through the second quarter. Linebacker Tyler Norman recovered a high snap at the Tiger 27
and Budai later cashed it in with a 1-yard plunge.
A Tinsley third-quarter TD run was negated by a holding penalty and the Tigers fumbled the ball away on the next play as the game stayed at 13-7 for much of the second half.
“We were running out of a lot of guys. We were down two or three linemen. I lost a linebacker in the first quarter,” noted Bellino, who saw starting quarterback Justin Guerrero go down as the third period ended.
“Once we lost a couple of guys, we weren’t running the ball like we were earlier in the game. It was a very difficult second half for us,” he said. “We took our tailback (Amone) and put him at quarterback and our fullback was the linebacker who was out. It was a hodgepodge mess, but they fought. We played great defense the whole game except for one or two plays. Getting a semi-block on the (point after touchdown), when they could have taken the lead there, was huge. The guys stepped up big time tonight.”
The Presidents appeared to be one play away from clinching the win in the fourth, but the Tiger defense held its own.
With 2:40 remaining, Robinson rolled right, then cut back, breaking loose for a 57-yard run before being knocked out of bounds at the FDR 3. Tinsley scored on the next play to tie.
“The defense also played their guts out. They gave us the ball when we needed the ball back,” Badalato said, “and Chuckie comes up with the big run when everything seemed lost.”
Amone raced 76 yards to get to the Kingston 13 with less than a minute left in regulation. The Presidents gave a hint of what was to come when VanSteenburgh ran on a fake field goal. He was looking for Rosado, but got chased down before he could throw as the clock ran out.
“It’s always so tough, because they just played their guts out,” Badalato said. “You rearrange things and, really, they did a great job. Chuckie first time back at QB and what a fantastic job he did.
“Gosh, they played so well. You have your mistakes. That’s bound to happen when you put stuff in in four days.
“We all know that close football games always come down to those two or three plays that you say, ‘What if?’ You could talk about muffed snaps. You can talk about missed kicks. You can talk about tackles, one blown assignment. That’s always how close games are and that’s what makes this game so special,” Badalato added.
“It’s 48 minutes and it comes down to maybe two or three plays. That’s why it’s so special and that is why it is so tough when you lose those games like this.”