For the opening of the 2021 PSAL football season, the Fort Hamilton Tigers were reassigned from the Championship Division to the lower Bowl Division due to their sub-.500 record the past few years. On Sept. 18, the Tigers kicked off their season in Springfield Gardens against the Campus Magnet Bulldogs, a perennial playoff foe when both teams were in the Championship Division.
The game was a reunion for Fort Hamilton’s sophomore quarterback Mark Kiss and junior running back Charles Kitsakos, who played Pee Wee football together in the Parkville Football League in 2015.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Bulldogs had a 14-0 lead at the end of the first half and upped it to 22-0 at the start of the third quarter. The Tigers answered on their next possession. After the kickoff, Kitsakos (111 yards rushing) took off on a 60-yard sprint that left all the Bulldog defenders in the dust to end the third quarter at 22-6. Kitsakos twisted an ankle during Fort Hamilton’s next possession and had to leave the game.
The Bulldogs scored again in the fourth quarter to make it 28-6, but the Tigers came back to score when Chris Bruno (18 yards) and Omar Carillo-Alvare (27 yards) “ran the ball up the gut” of the Bulldogs. Carillo-Alvare crossed the goal line on a seven-yard rush to make the final score 28-12.