Clarke upsets Roosevelt

When given a second chance, the Clarke football team has made the best out of it.

Only one week removed from an 18-point home loss to Roosevelt in the regular-season finale, the Rams upset the second-seeded Rough Riders, 15-14, on the road in the first round of the Nassau Conference IV playoffs last Saturday.

The Rams began the season 0-4, and have won four of their last five games.

Down 14-7 with nine seconds to go against Roosevelt, Clarke’s Gio O’Campo burst into the end zone with a two-yard run to get the Rams within one point.

Deciding to go for the game-winning two-point conversation instead of a tying kick, coach John Boyle called the same play. O’Campo and the offensive line succeeded, as the running back went in for the game-winning score.

“Their [running] backs were too talented to go into overtime with them — the opponent made the decision easy,” Boyle said of the choice to go for two. “They felt they could do it and they were believing in themselves. I said ‘Let’s do it, let’s run the same one.”

O’Campo led the offense with 128 yards on 21 carries, two touchdowns and the two-point conversion. Gary Tamney contributed with 44 yards on the ground, and John Chodkowski added 33 yards rushing.

On the final drive, Tamney caught a 14-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Mike Martiello which brought the Rams to the two-yard line and set up O’Campo’s touchdown run. The Clarke offense marched 90 yards in five minutes in its winning scoring drive.

Clarke’s defense contained a flashy Roosevelt offense that had torched the Rams for 32 points the week before. A goal line stand at the end of the second quarter held Roosevelt’s lead at 7-0 going into halftime. Junior Brandon Abbott led the Rams’ defense with seven tackles.

For Boyle, in his 23rd year as head coach, the upset ranks among the five most memorable victories in school history, he said.

The Rams, now 4-5, were scheduled to meet top-seeded and undefeated Seaford in the semifinals at Hofstra on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. Clarke lost at Seaford 51-14 in week 2.

"As you would go further into the playoffs, the teams obviously get better and you can’t make mistakes against them,” Boyle said. “But with this group here, it has been kind of like a Disney movie, the way we just turned it around from 0 and 4. Now they are just a confident group of kids.”

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