August Martin Football Proves Gutsy in 22-15 Win Over Jamaica, Making it Three in a Row

It was a game that August Martin football might have lost last season, head coach Kyle Allen noted. But his boys hung in there and pulled out the 22-15 gut-check win over host Jamaica Sunday in their PSAL A Conference matchup.

“We just have a habit of letting teams hang around,” Allen said. “And I don’t know what it is, but the different is, we’ve done that in the past and ended up losing. Now, we do it and win.”

The Beavers (2-5) scored first on junior running back Jquan Clarke’s 90-yard touchdown rush to take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

But the Falcons (4-3) answered back with a 42-yard touchdown run by senior running back Giovanni Faulkner, followed by a successful two-point conversion to pull ahead, 8-7, early in the second period.

However, on an August Martin blown coverage assignment, Jamaica quarterback Naby Tounkara threw a wobbly rainbow pass that should have been intercepted. Instead, it went for a 55-yard touchdown pass to junior Ducci Janvier and a 15-8 Beavers’ advantage midway through the third quarter.

Refusing to let this one slip out of the Falcons’ collective grasp, big man Makai Coddett busted through the line and hit paydirt from one yard out, making it 15-14 in favor of the Beavers. But August Martin quarterback Henry Lancaster converted the two-point run for a 16-15 lead with 8:35 remaining in the tilt.

Needed a big defense play, junior Rowayne McKenzie pushed Tounkara out of the way of a bad snap. It allowed Roger Kossally to recover the fumble deep in enemy territory.

On fourth and goal from the five, Faulkner, who rushed for 79 yards on ten carries, scored his second touchdown of the game that gave the Falcons a seven-point advantage with 3:55 to go in the affair.

Frustrated at first, Faulkner, who said he has recovered from his hampered ankle, settled down and went back to doing his thing.

“I don’t know what it was, but at first, I kind of got a temper,” Faulkner admitted. “We should’ve beat them from the beginning. But we’re ready to roll now.”

August Martin’s defense held on the rest of the way to seal its fourth victory of the year.

Three weeks ago, Allen said that they would go on a run, and losing was out of the way for the Falcons. So far, things are looking up for August Martin.

“Like I said three weeks ago, this would be a tale of two season,” he recalled. “We opened up with a win, lost three straight, now we just won three straight.

The rest has yet to be determined for the surging Falcons.

August Martin travels to Brooklyn Sunday at 11:30 a.m. to face Automotive Tech at New Utrecht High School Field.

— Jerry Del Priore