Babylon's Jake Carlock wins Tom Cassese and Rob Burnett awards
Babylon's Jake Carlock dives into the end zone for a touchdown in the third quarter of the Long Island Class IV championship. (Nov. 29, 2013) Credit: James Escher
If you did a fingerprint test on footballs used in Suffolk County this season, Jake Carlock undoubtedly would have left behind the most evidence.
The Babylon senior excelled at wide receiver, defensive back, punt and kick returner, punter and long snapper. If Carlock were a toy, he'd be a Transformer, most likely Optimus Prime.
"He's something else,'' said Ray Wardell, his best friend and fellow wide receiver/defensive back. "He's inhuman. He's done some things out there I only wish I could do.''
Carlock's DNA was all over the major awards presented Monday night at the annual Suffolk County Football Coaches Association dinner in Hauppauge. In helping lead Babylon to a second straight undefeated season and Long Island Class IV championship, he locked up the Tom Cassese Award (outstanding defensive back) and the prestigious Rob Burnett Award, presented since 2011 to the most outstanding defensive player in Suffolk. It's named for the Newfield graduate who won the Super Bowl with the 2000 Ravens.
The other finalists for the Burnett were Malcolm Pridgeon (Central Islip) and Jawan Jenkins (Floyd). Carlock was also a finalist for the Hansen Award (outstanding player) and NFF Award (outstanding receiver).
"We've never had a player like this at Babylon,'' Panthers coach Rick Punzone said. "In all my years of coaching, I've never seen a player who was as good an all-around athlete as him.''
Carlock's defense easily could be overlooked because he caught 51 passes for 921 yards, including a record-setting 10 receptions in the Long Island Class IV title game, a 27-26 thriller over Roosevelt in which he caught two TD passes.
In that game, Carlock also made an interception, his ninth of the season. "There are no 50-50 balls,'' Wardell said. "It's either our ball or we messed it up.''
Out of necessity, Punzone moved Carlock around during the LIC. In addition to his stellar work in the secondary, at receiver and on special teams, Carlock filled in for injured linebacker Eric Schweitzer and also took some snaps at defensive end.
"We have to put him where he's the most dangerous,'' Punzone said. "He can do anything.''
Stony Brook University apparently thinks so, as Carlock has accepted a full scholarship to play at Long Island's only Division I-FCS school. "I think they see him as an outside linebacker. They're going to put 30 pounds on him,'' Punzone said of the 6-2, 200-pound Carlock.
Fittingly, for Long Island's most decorated defensive player this season, Carlock made the last meaningful play of the LIC, picking off a high, fluttering desperation pass with 1:36 left.
"I thought I was going to drop it, it was in the air so long,'' he joked afterward on the turf at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium. "But it felt good to get that pick.''
Asked if that was the easiest or hardest interception of his career, Carlock pondered it briefly before replying with a laugh, "Probably the hardest.''
He made everything else look easy.
