Erasmus Hall claims its sixth city championship in seven years
Justus Murray #15 of Erasmus Hall Campus runs the ball against Kyle Charles #5 of Tottenville during the PSAL High School football championship game in Midwood, Brooklyn, NY on Nov 30, 2025. Credit: Anna Sergeeva
The main event of New York City high school football featured two powerhouses in front of a sold-out crowd. Tottenville had a dream of completing a perfect season, but Erasmus Hall returned to what it does best — win city championships. And senior Justus Murray made sure it happened.
“Not a lot of people thought we were winning this,” Murray said. “I’m just happy to show people what we could do and what we’ve been doing for years now. It’s so much love here at Erasmus, and we believed in the person next to us and we got it done.”
After a one-year hiatus, Erasmus Hall won its sixth city championship in seven years and returned to the top of New York City high school football. No. 2 Erasmus defeated No. 1 Tottenville 34-27 in the PSAL 4A championship at Midwood Field on Sunday.
Murray didn’t have a ton of touches, but when he did, he was electrifying and helped create separation. In the second quarter, he bobbled a direct snap out of the wildcat and then showed off how shifty he could be. Murray eluded defenders and scored a 20-yard touchdown to break a 7-7 tie.
In the third quarter, Murray won a jump ball in the end zone as a crowd packed to the gills erupted at Midwood, giving Erasmus a 21-7 lead with 8:23 left in the quarter.
“It’s just very special,” Murray said. “The touchdown catch was crazy, but everyone did their job regardless of what the other team did. We just got it done.”
But at the start of the game, Tottenville had the opening it wanted. Stony Brook commit Tyshawn Bent ran back the opening kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown. The duo of Bent and junior Kory Brown has been giving opponents issues for the last three years.
“I’ve been coaching football in New York City for a long time, and that’s as good as it gets as a tandem since I had Curtis Samuel and Kahlil Lewin,” Erasmus coach Danny Landberg said. “And we knew we were going to have to deal with them all game long.”
After that kickoff return, the Erasmus defense took control. The Dutchmen kept Tottenville off the scoreboard for the next 31:11. Kendell Brown, Zaire Walden and the entire front seven constantly applied pressure to Tottenville quarterback Justin McGuire.
“Coach Ros and Coach Mouse were on it and had us ready,” Kendell Brown said. “I just love this — it’s my last year and we had to go out the right way.”
The Pirates ended the drought when McGuire scored a 2-yard touchdown with 4:34 left in the third quarter. Erasmus’ Ameir Morrow responded with a score to give the Dutchmen a 15-point lead entering the fourth.
Bent found the end zone again later in the fourth on a 2-yard run to cut the deficit to 28-20 with 2:52 left.
“They did a good job with their run game,” Tottenville coach Brian Neville said. “We knew we had to play sound defense, and we had some lapses and they hurt us. But the kids fought hard until the final whistle.”
Chase Sinclair of Erasmus Hall recovered the onside kick. On the next play, quarterback Kendu Brown kept the ball himself and rushed 42 yards to the end zone, and Erasmus Hall was on its way to the program’s seventh championship win.
“We’re back,” Kendu Brown said. “We just did our assignment, listened to the coaching and it was great to go out like this.”
