Jakkai Stith helps Hempstead stay unbeaten in win over Freeport
Hempstead’s Jakkai Stith fires a completion during a Nassau Conference I football game against Freeport on Saturday at Hempstead. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Hempstead quarterback Jakkai Stith sets up in the shotgun formation and opposing teams see an imposing figure, a 6-1, 220-pound problem they have to solve.
Matt Ali glimpses at that same sight and sees something bigger: the right guy at the right time for a long-quiet program.
“An incredible player and an incredible leader,” Ali, the first-year Hempstead coach, said. “He’s a player and a person that everyone is going to look to and lean on.”
Stith on Saturday guided Hempstead around Freeport for a 14-8 Nassau Conference I win at the Tigers’ Charles Mills Athletic Field and into a place it hasn’t been in nearly three decades. Hempstead stands 4-0 for the first time since 1993, according to Newsday records.
The senior signal-caller rushed 22 times for 144 yards, including a 61-yard touchdown in the first quarter and was 10-for-14 passing for 72 yards. He threw the go-ahead 19-yard touchdown pass to Jamir Andrews on the first play of the fourth quarter.
“I love everything about his game,” Andrews, a senior wideout, said. “He runs, he passes, he leads us on the field.”
Ali summed it up even more succinctly: “He’s a very bad man.”
As Stith remembers the team’s first meeting with Ali, the focus was establishing goals and the bar was set high. “We want to play the last game of the season,” Stith said. “We want to be holding a trophy on the field at Stony Brook. (Ali) believes we can be that team . . . and ever since that meeting we’ve had a belief too.”
“When they showed up in August for camp, you could see they’d put a lot of work in and now it shows up on the field,” Ali said. “They prepared and now they’re putting in the effort every week.”
Freeport committed penalties to undermine its first possession and had to punt. Hempstead took over on its own 28 and three plays later Stith looked unstoppable on a 61-yard run to the end zone. He ran around, over and even through six would-be tacklers en route to the end zone and a 7-0 lead.
It lasted all of 12 seconds. Nazair Jean-Lubin returned the ensuing kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown and D’Angelo Gordon’s two-point conversion run put the Red Devils (1-3) ahead 8-7.
“Down but never out,” Andrews said.
That’s how it remained until midway through the third quarter as each team bent a little but did not break. Hempstead got some key stops from junior linebacker Chris Lake. Senior linebacker Yvan Neas and senior defensive lineman Alec Bastian made big hits for Freeport.
The Red Devils' narrow lead fell into danger on a fumble that Tigers junior defensive back Brandon Davis recovered at the Hempstead 42. Stith went 4-for-4 passing for 35 yards on the ensuing drive for the go-ahead score. He rolled right and Andrews adroitly knew to come back across the end zone to meet the pass for the 19-yard touchdown.
“I’m looking to him,” Andrews said “He runs to the sideline and I’m going to run with him.”
Freeport had one more threat left in it and drove into the red zone with less than six minutes left. On a third-and-goal from the 8, Andrews batted away a screen pass. A double-reverse on fourth-and-goal came up short.
Stith and junior running back Dwayne Meadors got the three first downs that allowed the Tigers to run out the clock.
“They seeded us sixth and no one expected us to do anything – except for us,” Stith said. “We’re ready to meet our expectations.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
