Hours before kickoff, the message was already clear. This wasn’t going to feel like an ordinary Friday night football game in Brooklyn. Hundreds of people waited outside for their chance to get through the gates. The line stretched as fans waited for hours, and by kickoff the stands were packed. Players, coaches, alumni, families and football fans from across the city came to see the matchup everyone had circled. It felt less like September and more like December. It felt like a championship. And by the end of the night, those who made their way inside had witnessed something Brooklyn hadn’t seen in years. Eagle Academy II defeated Erasmus Hall 22-7. For most programs, that would simply be a signature regular-season victory. Against Erasmus Hall, it means something different.
The Standard in Brooklyn
For much of the last decade, the road to a PSAL championship has gone through Erasmus Hall. Entering Friday night, the Dutchmen had won six of the previous seven championships in the PSAL’s highest division. Year after year, players graduate, new stars emerge and expectations remain the same. Win Brooklyn. Win the city. Compete for a championship. Erasmus has become the measuring stick. Brooklyn programs have had opportunities to knock off the Dutchmen over the years, but the last Brooklyn team to do it was South Shore, which defeated Erasmus 20-12 during the 2018 regular season. Eight years later, Eagle Academy II finally ended the drought. And they didn’t sneak past the defending champions. They held them without an offensive touchdown.
Eagle Came Ready
If there were any questions about whether Eagle Academy II was ready for the moment, the Eagles didn’t take long to answer them. Quarterback Anthony Caratelli found wide receiver Juvens Harold Lindor in the end zone to open the scoring, giving Eagle an early touchdown and sending an immediate message to everyone packed inside the stadium. Eagle wasn’t there just to survive the atmosphere. The Eagles weren’t intimidated by the name on the other sideline. They came to win. Against a program with Erasmus Hall’s championship history, falling behind early can change a game. Instead, Eagle struck first and forced the Dutchmen to play from behind. Caratelli-to-Lindor wasn’t simply the game’s opening touchdown. It was Eagle’s first declaration that this night might be different.
One Play Changed Everything
In games of this magnitude, there is usually one play that changes the feeling inside the stadium. For Eagle, it came from senior Chase Hyacinth. With Erasmus attempting to generate offense, a pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage. Hyacinth found himself in the right place at exactly the right time. The Delaware commit secured the football and took it the other way for a pick-six. Touchdown, Eagle.
In seconds, the energy shifted. A game filled with anticipation suddenly belonged to the Eagles. It was the type of play that championship teams make: pressure up front, defenders running to the football and a veteran playmaker turning an opportunity into points. Against a program like Erasmus, opportunities are rarely guaranteed to come twice. Hyacinth made sure Eagle didn’t waste theirs.
Zy’eare Schulters Makes His Statement
Then there was Zy’eare Schulters. If there were still questions about where the junior belongs in the conversation among New York City’s top running backs, Friday night gave him another argument. Schulters entered the matchup with 477 rushing yards through Eagle’s first three games and had already helped lead the Eagles through an impressive opening stretch. But doing it against Erasmus is different. Schulters broke loose for a roughly 60-yard touchdown run, making defenders miss and turning what could have been an ordinary rushing attempt into one of the defining moments of the night. Once he found daylight, it was over. In the biggest game of Eagle’s young season, one of its biggest stars delivered. That’s what separates talented players from difference-makers. Schulters didn’t just put up numbers. He produced when the lights were brightest.
Erasmus’ Offense Never Found the Answer
Perhaps the most surprising part of the night wasn’t that Eagle scored 22 points. It was what happened on the other side. Erasmus Hall’s offense never reached the end zone. The Dutchmen’s only points came on a kickoff return touchdown from athlete Trevor Smith. Outside of that special-teams spark, Eagle’s defense controlled the night. For a program known for producing explosive athletes and consistently competing for championships, seeing an Erasmus offense finish a game without a touchdown is rare.
Historical results show Erasmus was shut out 21-0 by Tottenville during the 2015 season. Friday’s performance appears to be one of the program’s most notable offensive droughts of the Danny Landberg era. But there is important context. Erasmus wasn’t at full strength at quarterback. Senior starting quarterback Tommy Zeh has been unavailable this season, Sophomore backup QB Jaylin Pierre has been unavailable since the first half of the game vs Millville, leaving sophomore Michael Bennett to handle the position. Bennett had shown promise one week earlier, completing all 11 of his passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns in a 43-6 victory over Kennedy. Against Eagle’s defense, however, things were different. And that leaves one of the biggest unanswered questions coming out of Friday night: What does this game look like if Erasmus has its starting quarterback? Nobody can answer that. And Eagle shouldn’t have to apologize for it. The Eagles played the team standing across from them, and their defense did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Is This Eagle’s PSAL Now?
Eagle Academy II is now 4-0. Look at the résumé. The Eagles opened by defeating Friendship Collegiate Academy out of Washington, D.C., 14-12. Then they traveled to Ohio and beat Archbishop Hoban, 24-20. Then came a 42-0 statement against Lincoln. And now? Erasmus Hall, 22-7. At some point, the question has to change. It is no longer simply, Can Eagle Academy II compete with the PSAL’s best? They’ve answered that. Now the question becomes: Who in the PSAL is going to stop them? Eagle has size. Eagle has speed. Eagle has Division I talent. Eagle has a running back capable of changing a game on one touch. Eagle has a quarterback who showed he wasn’t afraid of the moment. Eagle has playmakers on the outside. Eagle has a defense capable of producing points of its own. Most importantly, Eagle now has the win that validates everything people believed this team could become.
But there is a difference between beating the standard and becoming the standard. One Night Doesn’t Erase a Dynasty. That distinction matters. One September victory doesn’t erase what Erasmus Hall has built. Six championships in seven seasons cannot be wiped away in four quarters. Neither can the countless college players, playoff victories and championship moments that have made Erasmus one of New York City’s premier public-school football programs. If anything, that’s exactly why Friday night matters so much. Eagle didn’t beat an ordinary opponent. They beat the program everyone has been chasing.
Now comes the difficult part. Can Eagle handle becoming the team everyone else circles on the schedule? Can the Eagles carry the expectations that follow a win like this? Can they navigate the rest of the PSAL schedule without allowing one historic September night to become the peak of their season? And if these two teams see each other again with a championship at stake, would the result be the same? Those questions won’t be answered today. They’ll be answered over the next two months.
Four Quarters Later, The Scoreboard Read: Eagle Academy II 22. Erasmus Hall 7.
Anthony Caratelli and Juvens Harold Lindor struck first. Chase Hyacinth provided the momentum-shifting defensive score. Zy’eare Schulters provided the explosive run. Eagle’s defense did the rest. For the first time since South Shore did it in 2018, a Brooklyn program had taken down Erasmus Hall. And on a night that felt more like a championship than a regular-season game, Brooklyn may have witnessed the beginning of something bigger. Erasmus Hall is still Erasmus Hall. Its championships aren’t going anywhere. But Eagle Academy II has officially entered the conversation in a different way. They aren’t chasing the standard anymore. They’re challenging it. And if Friday night was only the beginning, the rest of the PSAL has been put on notice.