Shamari Kirkpatrick scores two TDS, Stephan Vailes passes for two more to lead Roosevelt to Nassau IV title
Roosevelt's Stephan Vailes runs upfield during the Nassau IV final on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014 at Hofstra Credit: James Escher
Roosevelt had been waiting for this chance since last season.
With their 41-14 win over Mineola in the Nassau IV title game Saturday, the Rough Riders (9-1) are set to return to the Long Island Championships, where they lost in each of the previous three seasons.
Senior Shamari Kirkpatrick rushed for 183 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and sophomore Stephan Vailes completed 2 of 2 passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns.
"This was a great opportunity," Roosevelt coach Joe Vito said. "I'm just happy for the kids. They are the guys that had to fill in for a lot of graduates and they did a good job."
Roosevelt will face Shoreham-Wading River next Sunday with the Long Island Class IV title at stake. The Rough Riders have not won the crown since 2006.
"It's been a while," Vito said.
In the teams' first matchup Sept. 20, Mineola senior quarterback James Gerstner rushed for 212 yards and five touchdowns and passed for 229 yards en route to a 47-38 victory.
Mineola (8-3), which was playing in its first Nassau final since 2002, managed only 69 rushing yards and 65 passing yards against Roosevelt on Saturday.
"[Gerstner] was the person we wanted to stop first and foremost, and they do have a number of weapons themselves," Vito said. "Tonight the defense really stepped up."
Said Kirkpatrick: "When we lost to Mineola the second week, we told ourselves when we get them back, we can't go out like how we did last time. We got to play with a bang, play hard. We didn't have a lot of our players in Week 2, and when we got them back, we showed them what we could do."
On the second play from scrimmage, senior Rashawn Vailes forced a fumble. Junior Quran Simmons recovered it and ran 63 yards for the game's opening score.
From there, it was the Kirkpatrick show. The senior running back darted through a hole and went untouched for an 89-yard touchdown to make it 13-0 with 2:19 left in the first quarter.
Stephan Vailes then found a wide-open Justin Terry for a 57-yard touchdown to make it 20-0 with 7:36 to go in the second. Kirkpatrick rambled 58 yards down the sideline for a touchdown two minutes later.
Mineola made it interesting by scoring the next two touchdowns. Gerstner completed a 22-yard scoring pass to senior Chris Lockwood with 53 seconds left in the second quarter and ran for a 1-yard touchdown to make it 27-14 with 7:08 left in the third.
But Roosevelt scored the game's last two touchdowns -- a 15-yard run by senior Jamal Finley and a 50-yard hookup between Stephan Vailes and his older brother Rashawn.
"I always tell him that it's the brother-to-brother thing," Stephan Vailes said. "We just keep working together and we practice a lot."
As a freshman last season, Stephan Vailes said, he worked out the jitters that come with playing on such a big stage.
"He's a bright kid," Kirkpatrick said. "He knows what he's doing. He's on point with everything he does."
To beat undefeated Shoreham-Wading River next week, Vailes and the rest of the Rough Riders will have to be on point one more time.
"Hard work. Dedication. That's what it will take," Kirkpatrick said. "Watch a lot of film and be ready for them."
