Coming off one of its biggest wins in program history, Clarke's football team showed no sign of a letdown last Friday night and took care of business at Valley Stream South, defeating the host Falcons, 42-25, in a Nassau Conference III matchup.
The Rams, still riding high from a stunning 36-34 upset over defending county and Long Island Class IV champion Wantagh a week prior, used a dominant second-half effort to secure their fourth straight win. Clarke, now 4-1, overcame a sluggish start and a three-point halftime deficit to outscore the Falcons 26-6 after the break.
Valley Stream South, coming off a thrilling 17-14 win over Manhasset thanks to Aidan Paris’ late touchdown, fell to 2-3.
Clarke was led by quarterback Matthew Kurz and wide receiver James Beckworth. The senior signal-caller had 146 passing yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 115 yards and scoring three times with his legs. As for the Rams’ senior pass catcher, Beckworth tallied 122 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
“We were really resilient,” Clarke head coach Kevin O’Hagan said. “The game started off as bad as it could’ve and we were on our heels a bit, but at halftime we kept it cool and didn’t panic. We knew if we just stuck with it, our offense would start clicking and it did.”
On the other side, senior Peter Greif had a big game for the Falcons, scoring two touchdowns with one of them being a 90-yard kickoff return to begin the game. Senior quarterback Daniel Casey also contributed with two touchdowns, one passing and one rushing.
Valley Stream South head coach Joseph Guastafeste was proud of the effort. “They played hard,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game and we were right there. When it gets to this point in the season and it’s a close game like that, it comes down to a few key plays and we’ve gotta work on the basics.”
It was the Falcons who led for most of the first half, taking a 19-16 lead into the break. The second half, however, was all Clarke.
Kurz engineered a methodical 60-yard drive to open the third quarter, finishing it with a 13-yard touchdown run to give the Rams their first lead of the night, 22-19. After a defensive stop, Kurz found Beckworth for a fourth-down, 22-yard touchdown, and Michael Iadevaia, who had a 44-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, added his second two-point conversion to stretch the lead to 30-19 late in the third.
South kept things interesting early in the fourth, as Casey connected with Greif for a 34-yard touchdown strike to pull within five. But the Falcons failed to recover the onside kick, and Clarke capitalized on the short field. Kurz punched in his second rushing score from two yards out to make it 36-25.
Beckworth delivered the dagger with under two minutes to go, hauling in a 25-yard touchdown to seal the Rams’ 42-25 victory.
“We had the ultimate confidence in ourselves going into that Wantagh game,” said Kurz, who threw two touchdown passes to Grady Rick and one to Alex Frank to help upset the Warriors. “We came here with the same mentality. We’re hungry and want to keep our foot on the pedal.”
Beckworth echoed that mindset. “We had a disappointing season last year so we wanted to bounce back,” he said. “We just love to play, especially under the lights on a Friday night.”