Tottenville HS football team gets major lift from junior quarterback Josh Rainey, who helps team advance to PSAL City Conference title game

The watershed moment of the Tottenville HS football team’s season seems scripted, like a scene from Friday Night Lights.

But there was coach Jim Munson on the team’s practice field in Staten Island on the Monday after a Week 3 loss to Lincoln - the No. 3 Pirates’ opponent in Tuesday’s PSAL City Conference championship game at Yankee Stadium - which left the team with two losses in its first three games, a rare occurrence for a perennial contending program. The first loss came at Erasmus Hall in Week 1 in a rematch of last year’s title game.

Prognosticators were ready to “get the shovels out” for Tottenville, Munson said, slotting it a tier lower than its two Brooklyn adversaries in what was thought to be a three-team race for the city crown. Munson knew his team was capable of achieving greatness, but he needed to make sure it didn’t lose sight of it.

So he drew a line in the sand. Or in this case, the turf.

“I said, ‘Hey, it’s corrected now. So everyone who wants to achieve your goal that you set, step across the line. If you don’t, it’s OK,’” Munson explained. “So they all stepped across the line, I said ‘Now turn around. You are all accountable for one another because you made the decision to cross that line. So our season is going to change right now.’ And to their credit, they’ve done it.”

The Pirates (10-2) ride a nine-game winning streak into its rematch with No. 1 Lincoln (12-0,) which includes an avenging 41-33 win over Erasmus in the semifinals. Munson’s son James, a senior defensive back, said there was never any self-doubt within the team when it was sitting at 1-2.

“If anything, it gave us more drive,” the younger Munson said. “After that loss we got hungry again and I think it’s showed.”

Crucial to the Pirates success has been the development of junior quarterback Josh Rainey, who as a sophomore had to step in during last year’s title game when then-senior QB Brandon Barnes went down with a collarbone injury late in the third quarter.

Rainey said it was “scary” before he stepped on the field.

Rainey struggled in Week 1 against Erasmus, and Coach Munson said the staff gave Rainey “too much, too soon.”

It was the second half of the Week 3 loss to Lincoln which both Munsons said was the turning point for Rainey. The Pirates trailed 20-0 at halftime and lost 26-7.

“It could’ve been 40-0. That’s how good (the Railsplitters) were playing,” Jim Munson said. “We just walked in the locker room and said ‘It’s time to man up, now. We gotta man up here and make a stand.’ And something went off. The light bulb went off and (Rainey) got a little more comfortable and he started taking his time, started making reads, started throwing to open receivers and he played better in the second half. And then his growth the rest of the year started from that second half.”

Rainey accounted for five touchdowns in each of the last two games, seven passing and three rushing.

“Now it just feels good to be back here and I’m trying to get it done this year,” Rainey said.