Through the first month of the season, the New Rochelle Huguenots looked nothing if not impressive. Opening the spring campaign with four straight one-sided wins, the defending state champions once again appeared to be the class of the Section I football landscape. But on April 16, New Rochelle’s winning streak came to an end when the Suffern Mounties romped to a 37-18 behind a stellar performance by senior Clevmer Lubin.
Lubin, a six-foot-three, 220-pound West Point commit, rushed for a score on the game’s opening possession and never looked back, racking up 303 yards and 5 touchdowns on 31 carries. According to New Rochelle coach Ray Rhett, although the Huguenots were prepared for Lubin to be a focal point of the Mounties’ offense, the senior’s physicality was simply too much to handle for the Huguenot defenders.
“When you see him on film and you see what he’s been doing, you wonder if he’s really that good, but you don’t know until you go up against him,” Rhett said. “But he is that physical, he is that fast and he’s always going forward.”
Lubin—who lined up exclusively under center on Friday night—scored four times in the first half, staking Suffern out to a 27-12 halftime lead. He effectively moved the chains in the second half, keeping the Huguenots’ explosive offense off the field, before eventually breaking off his fifth and final touchdown run on a 49-yard scamper in the fourth quarter. Rhett said that his defense expected to see Lubin take some snaps at quarterback, but the Mounties’ early success allowed them to abandon the multiple-formation offense they have used all season.
“We prepared for him, but they have also run other formations that we prepared for,” he said. “But they stayed with him back there all night.”
Offensively, the Huguenots got a solid outing from running back Colin Jennings who rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns. New Rochelle’s other score came on an interception return by Gary Phillips III.
The loss is New Rochelle’s first on-field defeat against a Section I opponent since 2014, when it fell in the Class AA title game against Arlington. But Rhett believes with just one game remaining on the schedule—New Rochelle will play White Plains on April 23—the Huguenot players will still be able to learn from this humbling moment.
“It’s life, sometimes you’re going to face adversity and you have to bounce back,” Rhett said. “In our talk to the kids at the end of the game it was that we took it on the chin and it’s about how we are going to respond.”
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