Shabazz-Allah leads VSS over Hewlett

Valley Stream South’s football playoff hopes are still alive thanks to Yasir Shabazz-Allah and Tyler VanEtten.
Shabazz-Allah rushed for 251 yards and three touchdowns and VanEtten made two key defensive plays in the fourth quarter as the Falcons defeated Hewlett, 24-14, last Friday to remain in the mix for a Conference III postseason berth.
Both schools entered the game 2-2 and in a sixth-place tie with two other teams. But this year, only the top four teams qualify for the playoffs instead of the usual eight, making this contest a must-win on both sides.
“I’m so proud of them,” said Falcons head coach Joe Guastafeste. “They knew we were on the outside looking in. It was a must-win.”
But it wasn’t easy. Hewlett recovered a fumble on the South 16-yard line 89 seconds into the game, but turned the ball over after Falcon linebacker Brandon Pierre stopped Bulldog quarterback Mark Winkler on a fourth-down run.

“We didn’t start off as quickly as we hoped to,” Hewlett head coach John Palladino said. “Our plan was to play with a lead [and] try to score early. It didn’t work out that way.”
The Falcons took over and methodically drove down the field behind Shabazz-Allah’s running before the senior emergency quarterback punched it in from a yard out and again on the two-point conversion to make it 8-0 early in the second quarter. He scored again on a four-yard run and another two-pointer for a 16-0 advantage with 2:30 left in the half.
Hewlett began the next drive on its 45-yard line after the kickoff went out of bounds and took full advantage. Winkler started the set with a 52-yard screen pass to Manny Richards and ended it with a 15-yard TD strike to Jon Zenny to put Hewlett on the board. Zenny converted the trick two-point conversion to cut the deficit in half.
“We decided that we had to open it up a little bit,” Palladino said. “That was a great catch [by Zenny].”
Shabazz-Allah picked up where he left off in the second half by rushing the ball 13 times for 62 yards on South’s first possession, including a six-yard scamper around the left end that helped South regain its 16-point advantage.
Hewlett answered early in the fourth quarter on Zenny’s 14-yard TD run with 10:10 left, but a fumbled two-point conversion attempt only brought the Bulldogs to within 10 points.
VanEtten helped clinched the win by stripping Winkler near midfield with just over seven minutes remaining, a fumble that was recovered by teammate Ivan Chen, before sacking him just over two minutes later in Falcon territory. Nick Parisi intercepted the ball on the next play.
“Everybody who watches the games talks about Yasir, but every coach I have faced this year talks to me about Tyler,” Guastafeste said. “To the trained eye, Tyler is the man.”
Shabazz-Allah, who had a whopping 52 carries, has 12 touchdowns.
The Falcons need to beat winless Glen Cove in the season finale to at least have a chance at the playoffs. A victory will also give the program their first winning record in the regular season since 2012.