John Jay football falls to defending state champion Somers

Jim MacLean Photos

Clockwise from top left, Tommy Machado carries for John Jay against Somers. Nick Rinaldi tries to avoid a tackler. John Jay’s Brady Currid is tackled in loss to Somers.

By JIM MACLEAN

John Jay knew it would face a tough task on the gridiron Saturday night as the Wolves hosted undefeated defending state champion Somers under the lights Oct. 5.

That task didn’t get any easier as the Wolves added bad luck and misfortune to the mix for a slow start, ending up in a 46-7 victory for Somers (5-0).

John Jay took the opening kick off and was hoping to attack and gain momentum with quarterback Brady Currid going to the air completing a pass on the first play from scrimmage to Theo Dorta for a first down. Currid then threw another pass for another apparent first down, but it was called back for a penalty.

Then bad luck struck as Currid was sacked on the next play and injured and carted off the field.

“Losing Brady on the third play of the game, that was pretty rough,” admitted John Jay coach Joe Candarelli after the Currid injury. “He broke his leg and is done for the year. Somers is very good and their coaching staff has done a really good job this year having them prepared every week. That was our challenge going in and we felt we had a good game plan and came out firing and kind of got the wind taken right out of our sails. Give Somers the ball inside the 50 and they will capitalize.”

After the injury, Somers needed just four plays to reach the end zone as Tusker quarterback Miguel Iglesias connected with Cameron Violante for a quick 7-0 lead.

Tommy Machado took over at quarterback for Currid and on John Jay’s first play of the ensuing drive he connected with Pat Ryan for a first down. Machado then carried for 5 yards, but on the third play a bad snap was recovered by Somers at the John Jay 7-yard line, and Iglesias carried it in on the next play for the Tuskers to make it 14-0.

John Jay was forced to punt on its ensuing possession, and Somers returned the punt to the Wolves’ 15-yard line. On the next play, Iglesias connected with Violante again for another TD pass and a 21-0 lead.

The Wolves tried to keep on the attack, but the first play of the ensuing drive Somers came up with an interception and Iglesias connected on another TD pass for a 28-0 lead.

John Jay was able to reach the end zone in the third quarter as Machado connected with Manny Ruiz for a touchdown completion, but the Tuskers were able to close out the victory by the final score of 46-7.

John Jay hopes to rebound with Machado back at quarterback as the Wolves were set to host Lakeland on Thursday.

“Tommy is a tough competitive kid and the team will rally behind him,” said Candarelli. “We have a short week of practice, another challenge, but we’re confident that we can get things rolling facing three more tough teams on the schedule, and the team will focus on Lakeland and take it one game at a time.”