Roy Forys spent most of Friday night’s game slipping past would-be tacklers, but there was one pair of outstretched arms he could not evade.
The senior running back had just scored his fourth touchdown in Becton’s 51-14 victory over Bogota in the first round of the North 1, Group 1 playoffs.
The 3-yard run that ended with what Forys called “a face full of turf” gave him 22 touchdowns for the season — the second highest single-season total in school history and one more than Roy Forys Sr. had scored back when he held the school record.
When he returned to the sideline, Forys was snatched up in the loving embrace of his biggest fan — his father.
“He was ecstatic,” said Forys, The Record Male Athlete of the Week.
“Like any father, he wants to see his son do better than him.”
Forys said he tried to shoulder even more of the offensive burden than usual Friday after quarterback Nick Barbo left the game with an ankle injury.
Playing hard, rallying your teammates, demanding more of yourself — these are the kind of lessons that have been passed down to Forys.
“He’s always tried to give me the mind-set to be the best player on the field,” Forys said. “I just try to go with that and abide by that. A great attitude precedes a great performance.”
Great performances aren’t contained to the gridiron. Forys has a 4.0 grade-point average. He dreams about pursuing a degree in neurology or animal studies at an Ivy League school.
But his immediate thoughts have turned to beating Verona on Saturday, and perhaps breaking the school record of 25 touchdowns in one season set by James Ross in 2003.
“It’s a little bit of an incentive,” he said. “It really makes you want to get after it. You want the team to do well, but it’s personally something to shoot for to keep myself as hungry for success as I can be.”
