Jason Gwaltney, starring at Kean, has pro hopes

Jason Gwaltney is closing out his college football career in grand style. And the dream of playing pro football is very much alive for the former North Babylon High School superstar running back.

The 6-foot, 225-pound Gwaltney has rushed for more than 200 yards in each of his last two games for Division III Kean University (N.J.). In six games, he is averaging 139 rushing yards per game and 5.3 yards per carry.

Coming off a spectacular, record-breaking career for North Babylon, Gwaltney, now 23, was a blue-chip prospect when he entered West Virginia as a freshman in 2005. He had 186 yards rushing on 45 carries and three touchdowns in six games before a knee injury and some academic issues ended his freshman season and he left school.

That started an odyssey that included another unsuccessful try at West Virginia, then one season at C.W. Post in 2008. He was cited for not fulfilling an offseason conditioning program - he disputed that assertion - but left in good academic standing and transferred to Kean last season. He played in only one game before fracturing his left foot.

This is his last year of eligibility, and he has made the most of it. "I control my own fate, so to speak,'' he said this week. "I'm going to work real hard at it. It's reachable. I have the opportunity to put everything in my hands now.''

Gwaltney is likely to be an undrafted free agent. "He's a kid on the radar,'' said Dan Shonka of Ourlads Scouting Services, which evaluates and rates college football talent. "He's a guy who definitely has some talent. Unless he blew somebody away in a 40-yard dash, I'd probably say he's looking at a free-agent type of thing. You've got 32 opinions on guys out there. He's got pretty good size. The big thing is to be able to run well. The NFL is full of second chances. He is having a productive year.''

Gwaltney's best game came last week when he rushed for 209 yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries against Western Connecticut a week after gaining 207 yards on 32 carries against Rowan.

"He's playing against very good competition,'' Western coach John Burrell said. "We've got some pretty good defenses. There aren't other people running those kind of yards. If anybody from our conference has a shot [at the pros], I think it would be him.''

Gwaltney also could get an opportunity in the Canadian Football League.

Said John Murphy, the director of player personnel for the Calgary Stampeders: "It's a smart move on his part to show all the professional teams the maturing part, not only consistency with his game but staying with the program and kind of saw things through. He thinks at full strength he'll be able to run 4.5 again, and I think he still has every opportunity to see himself get a shot in an NFL camp.''

Added Murphy, a former Long Island resident who attended Holy Trinity High School, "The thing that I've seen from him since Day 1 is better accountability as a person, more maturity, knowing that the hard road is one that 'I'm going to take but I'm going to still try everything I can to make it work,' and if you ask most NFL teams or decision- makers what they want to see out of a young guy, it's that type of maturity. He's come out this year and done what you have to do at that level, which is to all intents and purposes dominate to a large extent.''

Kean coach Dan Garrett said Gwaltney has been a great player on the field and a good student in the classroom. "He carries himself well,'' Garrett said. "He was so committed to just getting back [after the ankle injury]. He had that drive. I think he willed it to happen. We had a talk toward the end of last season. I think he had an epiphany. He's been tested with some great adversity. Previously, obviously, it was some of his own doing. He said, 'You know what? I'm going to stay, work my tail off.' ''

There are no scholarships in D-III. Garrett said Gwaltney has "a bunch of loans.''

Where many others wrote off Gwaltney, Garrett did not. "I've always been a second- chance guy,'' Garrett said. "I'm still open to those guys. I might be a dreamer, but I believe there are still good people in the world and you have to change the habits that are built up over an 18- or 19-year period.''

Gwaltney rushed for 2,882 yards as a senior in 2004 and 2,601 as a junior in 2003 for North Babylon, scoring 45 touchdowns each season and becoming the only two-time winner of the Hansen Award as Suffolk County's top player. Gwaltney scored a Long Island-record 135 career touchdowns, gained an LI-record 7,800 yards, was a three-time All-Long Island selection and led the Bulldogs to two Long Island Class II titles.

North Babylon football coach Terry Manning remains firmly in Gwaltney's corner. "From the beginning, I told him to stay in school; football will take care of itself,'' Manning said. "Hopefully, someone will give him a look, I'm praying. If it's there for him, he'll grab it and run with it.''

Gwaltney used to talk about pro football as a birthright; now he knows it is all about just getting a chance. "I just want the opportunity,'' he said. "I want a chance to get through the process. Whatever happens after that, it is what it is.

"I want the opportunity to be like, I'm training to become a pro. Not everybody can say that. For me, that would mean a lot. Any team out there is going to get a hard worker. That is why I do this; this is why I'm still at it. I would do whatever I have to do. My dream is to shoot for the stars and hit the sky on the way.''

Farmingdale State golf wins Skyline title

The Farmingdale State men's golf team shot a two-day total of 597 to capture its third straight Skyline Conference championship. The Rams finished 30 strokes ahead of second-place St. Joseph's College and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national championships.

Tied entering the 36th hole with St. Joseph's Matt Ranum, Farmingdale freshman Adam Larkin made a 15-foot birdie putt to capture the individual title. Larkin made the turn at 3 over par and shot a 2-under 33 on the back nine en route to a final-round 71. Larkin finished with a two-day total of 145 (74-71), one shot ahead of Ranum.

Freshman Rich Kelly, who shot a 75 in round one, posted a final-round 74 to finish in third place individually. Kelly shot 40 on the front nine and came back with a 1-under-par 34 on the back for a two-day total of 149.

Senior Chris Arnold entered the final round with a share of the lead and shot a 77 to finish in fourth place. Junior Joe Arnold shot a pair of 76s to take fifth place. Sophomore Jack McKerlie carded two rounds of 80 for the Rams.

Farmingdale will compete in the Division III national championships at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C., in May.

Around the campuses

Dowling goalie Alicia Commisso earned a 3-0 victory over Wilmington for her sixth shutout . . . Stony Brook's Stefan Manz had 13 saves in two games and also has six shutouts on the season . . . Dowling volleyball player Maja Potpara had two triple-doubles: an 11-kill, 26-assist, 10-dig performance against New Haven and a 17-kill, 23-assist, 10-dig showing against Bridgeport. No. 22 Dowling is 17-1 after losing to Bridgeport. Dowling still leads the country in team hitting percentage (.366) . . . Dowling's soccer team received a hat trick from Sean Dougherty in a 3-0 shutout of Nyack College. Dougherty scored the winning goal in a 2-1 overtime victory over Wilmington. The Golden Lions are 8-1-3 . . . Stony Brook's Alicia Nelson had 34 kills in two matches . . . Adelphi goalie Thorne Holder played 155 minutes of scoreless time in goal in a 0-0 tie with Longwood . . . NYIT women's soccer defeated St. Thomas Aquinas, 1-0, with freshman Maria Moreno scoring her seventh goal of the season . . . The Hofstra women's tennis team improved to 2-0 in dual meets when it won at Rhode Island, 5-2. The Pride won all three doubles matches and took four of six singles matches. Michigan State transfer Elena Ivanova improved to 10-0 with a win in first singles. Ivanova has yet to drop a set this season, though she did need tiebreaks in each set . . . Hofstra women's soccer's Tiffany Yovino scored two goals in a 3-2 road win over William & Mary, including the winner with 45 seconds left in regulation, less than one minute after William & Mary tied the score at 2-2. She added the tying goal in the 60th minute of a 3-1 win over Old Dominion . . . In men's soccer, Hofstra freshman Roberto Pellegrini saw his first collegiate action in goal and had 10 saves as Hofstra tied Delaware, 0-0, in a game in which the teams totaled 38 shots (20 for Delaware, 18 for Hofstra) but no goals. It was the third scoreless tie for Hofstra this season, the first time in school history that there have been three 0-0 draws in the same season . . . The C.W. Post football team (5-2) plays at 18th-ranked Kutztown (7-0) on Saturday. Post's Billy O'Connor is seventh in the nation in D-II with 81 tackles. Teammate Xavier Brown is seventh with seven sacks.