LIC notebook: Jawara Keahey's incredible season runs into a roadblock against Garden City
Jawara Keahey #22 of North Babylon reacts after scoring his fourth touchdown of the afternoon in the fourth quarter of a Suffolk Division III football game against West Babylon on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. Credit: James Escher
Jawara Keahey had an incredible junior season at North Babylon. With 2,562 yards and 37 touchdowns, Keahey led the Bulldogs to the Long Island Class II title game for the first time in six years. He rushed for more than 200 yards in nine of those games. His lowest total was 139 on Oct. 21 against Bellport.
Keahey also scored in each of North Babylon’s 11 games.
A monster game in the Long Island Championships would have given Keahey a shot at the record for yards rushing in a season (2,800, set by North Babylon’s Jason Gwaltney in 2004).
So how good was the Garden City defense? Well, let’s just say the Trojans gave Keahey no room to run. They held Keahey to 49 yards on 15 carries and no touchdowns, and he had one rush longer than seven yards.
“We never let him in space. He’s too dangerous,” linebacker Aidan Considine said. “And our guys just don’t miss in the open field. He wasn’t getting his yards after contact.”
Garden City held the Bulldogs to 73 yards on 31 carries in a 38-7 victory that gave the Trojans the Long Island Class II championship at Stony Brook University.
Like father, like son
When the final horn sounded, East Islip celebrated its 19-14 win over South Side and the second Long Island title in school history. East Islip also earned the Class II crown in 2007. The win was significant in that it tied Sal J. Ciampi with his father, Sal Ciampi, as the winningest coaches in East Islip history. Both have 165 wins, making them the winningest father-son duo in Long Island history.
Dulanto’s final touch
Massapequa quarterback Paul Dulanto’s senior season basically ended before it started when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the second quarter of Massapequa’s season opener.
Dulanto put the finishing touches on Massapequa’s perfect season, though, taking the final quarterback kneel in its 35-7 win over Floyd in Friday’s Long Island Class I championship game.
“That was something else, man,” Dulanto said. “ . . . [It] was truly an amazing feeling.”
Coach Kevin Shippos said the possibility of Dulanto taking the last snap was always in the back of the staff’s mind.
“These injuries happen to the kids that do everything right, and he did the entire summer, the entire spring, dedicated his whole life to it,” Shippos said. “ . . . I’m glad we were able to get him in there and at least let him have his moment.”
With Gregg Sarra
