Driving into the stadium parking lot Friday night at Somers High School, you might have thought Foo Fighters were about to play a free concert. The Somers home bleachers were shoulder-to-shoulder from bow to stern. The whole town turned out for the Rye game.
The atmosphere – much like the roman candle fireworks that went off after every Somers score – was electric. The Tuskers (5-0) delivered a loud message to the Garnets (3-2) and to every regional high school section in the state, beating the defending state champion Garnets 31-13.
2025 may have been the year of the Garnet in New York high school football, but 2026 might just turn out to be the year of the Tusker.
When Somers senior speedster Dean Monachelli returned the opening kickoff 90-plus yards for a touchdown, Rye trailed 7-0 after 15 seconds of football. It was an old-fashioned punch in the mouth for the Garnets. But Rye did not back down.
With sophomore back-up quarterback Johnny Shoemaker missing his targets early, it was up to Rye’s defense to settle things down. With just under four minutes remaining in the first quarter, Somers had fourth and short from inside the Rye 20-yard line.
At home, on Homecoming Night no less, Somers elected to go for it. Rye’s defense held firm, stood up Somers’ strong quarterback Tristan Iglesias, and took over on downs.
At this point, it was still a ballgame.
Alas, the Garnets didn’t have the firepower to keep up, suffering their largest loss since 2022.
“We knew coming in that we were missing a few key players tonight,” said Rye coach Dino Garr, “and that we probably would have had to play near perfect football to have a chance against a good Somers team. We made a few mistakes that really hurt us, and Somers took advantage. That’s what good teams do.”
A costly pass interference call against Rye helped position Somers for its second score with 1:30 left before halftime. A minute later, when Shoemaker threw a perfect 44-yard strike to senior wideout Ryan Hess – in full stride – Rye was back in the game at 14-7, with 47 seconds to play in the half.
The second half belonged to Somers.
Defensively, Rye struggled to contain the Tuskers’ relentless running game. And Rye’s special teams allowed too many big chunk returns. Somers was winning the battle of field position, and Rye couldn’t stop it.
In the post-game, Rye senior captain Benji Kaplan admitted the team had injured quarterback Charlie Brady on their minds all week. Brady will miss the rest of the season after sustaining a knee injury in the previous game at Mount Vernon.
“We talked about playing for Charlie, about winning this game for him,” Kaplan said. “But we’re not going to blame this loss on not having Charlie on the field with us tonight. We just have to get back to work in practice and execute better, particularly at the start of games. We’ve got to be more physical as a team and do the little things right.”
With just over 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Somers led Rye 31-7, and the Garnets were effectively cooked. A six-yard touchdown pass from Shoemaker to Hess with five minutes to play was the end of any scoring.
“We had a number of players who played hard tonight for us,” Garr said. “They never surrendered, and I’m proud of them for that. As a team, we were disappointed in our tackling tonight and that’s been a challenge for us all year. As coaches, we need to work harder in that department.”
Somers and Rye often meet for a second time in the section championship game, but the Garnets have work to do to get back to that game. Three regular-season games remain, starting with Nyack next Friday at home, then Harrison for “The Game” on Oct. 17.
