By Laura Amato
Jonathan Cato couldn’t feel any of his extremities. It didn’t matter. He would have stood outside, battling freezing cold and gusts of wind for another two hours if it meant Bayside’s football season didn’t end on Sunday afternoon.
It didn’t.
The fourth-seeded Commodores cruised to a 33-7 victory over Springfield Gardens in the PSAL bowl conference quarterfinals, keeping the squad’s championship hopes alive.
“Right now I can’t feel my toes at all. I feel like they’re about to drop off,” Cato said. “But we managed to stay in the game and I kept myself going and we got the win.”
Bayside set the tone from the get-go, scoring on its first two drives of the game as quarterback Tequan Evans jumpstarted the Commodores. The junior rushed for the game’s opening score and then connected with Robert Williams on a 45-yard strike to put Bayside up 14 and left the Golden Eagles searching for defensive answers.
“I just told my line to give me three seconds,” Evans said of the touchdown throw. “I knew I could get the ball out of my hands and let it fly. We were able to make it happen.”
Evans wasn’t able to throw quite as much as the Commodores would have liked—fighting some serious wind gusts across the field—but Bayside’s offense didn’t miss a single step as it settled into the ground game.
As the squad continued to pull away, there was, simply, no reason to deviate from what was working.
“It was a very good rhythm,” Bayside coach Jason Levitt said. “I was very concerned with the wind and I think the biggest play of the game was that touchdown catch. And they only really ran the ball, so once we got ahead it was kind of up to us.”
The Commodores controlled tempo throughout the game—adding a Cato touchdown run in the second to take a 20-point lead into the break—but it wasn’t just Bayside’s offense that led the charge. The defense refused to back down either, giving up just two first downs in the first 24 minutes of play.
“If they were going to beat us, they were going to have to beat us passing and they don’t want to do that,” Levitt said. “Plus, the weather, so it was a little bit easier for the game plan because they just didn’t want to pass.”
The Golden Eagles didn’t complete a single pass by the final whistle and struggled to move the ball as Bayside’s defense effectively set up camp in the backfield.
Springfield Gardens recorded less than 20 yards of total offense, while the Commodores racked up 229 rushing yards. Nathaneal Faison chipped in two rushing touchdowns in the second half to wrap up the victory.
“We were waiting for them [coming out of the bye],” Cato said. “We felt the push and had to take over. It was all about just maintaining.”
The Commodores will head up to the Bronx this weekend for a semifinal tilt against top-seeded Truman, the reigning bowl champions. It won’t be an easy matchup—Bayside lost to Truman 30-16 earlier this season—but after a dominant performance in the quarters, this squad is practically bursting with confidence.
If the Commodores can survive the cold, they’re certain, they can survive just about anything.
“We just knew we had to fight hard and keep our heads on a swivel and go out there and play our best,” Evans said. “We knew if we played to our full potential, we’d get the win and we’d get another week.”
