By Anthony Parelli
Facing a second straight loss with time running out, Flushing put the ball in the hands of playmaker DeAndre Ross-Lomax. The senior running back proved to be exactly that when needed most.
Ross-Lomax hauled in a fourth-and-12 screen pass, turned up field and cut back to his left while sprinting 27 yards to the end zone for what proved to be the winning the score with 4:43 remaining in the contest.
“I saw the guy coming in so I knew I had to go a little bit out, and then I saw they were over-pursuing and I cut it back and just kept running,” he said of the score.
That and a penalty for a late hit against hot Kennedy in the closing minutes helped Flushing pull out a dramatic 21-18 win in PSAL City conference football last Friday night.
“Without the personal foul it might be a different game,” Flushing Coach Jim DeSantis said. “I’m probably not in as good a mood.”
He was elated with the unlikely comeback.
Kennedy (2-2) got two first-half rushing scores from running back Caine Caldwell (18 carries, 108 yards), but Flushing trailed just 12-7 at the half thanks to a Terrence Chavis touchdown run. Just two plays into the second half Flushing found itself down 18-7 when Kennedy’s Cristian Perez intercepted an attempted option pitch and returning it 30 yards for a score.
The Flushing defense responded by shutting down the Kennedy offense, run by standout quarterback Anthony Cruz, who had 235 total yards.
“The defense was unbelievable because their kid is outrageous,” DeSantis said of Cruz. “He’s a special kid, but we get after it.”
The game was eventually put in the hand of Ross-Lomax, who scored twice after halftime. He also converted several key third and fourth downs.
“He’s the franchise,” DeSantis said.
The win pushed Flushing’s record to an impressive 3-1 and helped them rebound from a disappointing loss to Canarsie the week before.
Resiliency was a key for Flushing and it started at the top with DeSantis. After Kennedy scored a defensive touchdown, the Flushing sideline was silent, but DeSantis yelled at his players to stay up, and that they had been in that situation before.
“Just hang in, good things will happen,” DeSantis said. “We were getting good plays but penalties were killing us and just hang in, these kids never quit and that’s the result.”
Ross-Lomax echoed the sentiments to his teammates.
“I was telling them to keep their heads up and let’s keep playing,” the tailback said. “We could come back.”
He made sure they did.
