There’s only one word that does justice to Rye’s potent offense this season: explosive. In the Garnets’ 5-0 start, they’ve scored 200 points, more than any other team in Section 1. They’ve scored 40-plus points three times, something they haven’t done in a season’s first five games since 2016.
Rye’s latest blowout victory came Saturday against Yorktown. The Garnets started and finished strong, scoring the game’s first two touchdowns, then four unanswered touchdowns in the second half, for a 42-13 win.
After Rye held the Huskers (1-4) to a three-and-out on their opening possession, it took just three plays for quarterback Carson Miller to find fellow senior Sebastian Lewis on a 38-yard touchdown pass. Lewis scampered across nearly the entire width of the field on his way to the end zone for a 7-0 lead. Senior running back Charlie Garnett scored the first of his three touchdowns to make it 14-0.
Just when it seemed Rye would roll to another convincing win, Yorktown marched down the field on back-to-back drives led by quarterback David Jerome. Several chunk gains on long passes, a fourth-down penalty on the Garnets, and a 20-yard touchdown run by Jerome cut Rye’s lead to 14-13 before a missed Yorktown extra point.
Rye’s two-touchdown lead was suddenly down to a single point, but the Garnets quickly reclaimed control of the game.
“That’s the funny thing about momentum, it can always go both ways,” said coach Dino Garr, “and that’s where we capitalized.”
Miller anchored the next Rye possession, which included a 20-yard pass to junior Luke Denvir, a 20-yard scamper on the ground, and a 26-yard throw to senior captain Nigel Strazzini, who lived up to his nickname as “The Human Missile,” by barreling through multiple defenders for a 21-13 lead.
After Rye stopped Yorktown on its next drive, junior Jagger Fenton put together arguably the most electrifying play of the season for the Garnets, returning a punt 80 yards for the Garnets’ first special teams score and a 28-13 halftime lead.
“Honestly, it’s always cool returning a punt as a punter myself,” Fenton said, “but as soon as I saw that hole open up, I was gone, hoping that there wasn’t a flag and running into the end zone. It felt amazing.”
Garnett’s second and third touchdowns put the game on ice. The three-score game matched the career-high output Garnett set a week ago, and gives him 11 touchdowns on the season. He is one of just three tailbacks in the section with double-digit touchdowns, joining Sleepy Hollow’s Brayden Richardson and Bronxville’s Brian Formato.
Five weeks in, Rye is the only unbeaten team in Section 1 Class A. Just three games remain on the regular-season schedule: Eastchester, Nyack, and the annual bout with Harrison. Next up is an Oct. 10 game at Eastchester, a team Rye has beaten in the previous nine meetings.
