[Photos by Francesca Andre for Norwood News]

So close and yet so far away.

For the second year in a row, the DeWitt Clinton varsity football team’s season ended with a resounding loss to Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School.

Last year, the Governors lost to the Railsplitters in the second round of the playoffs. This year Clinton came into their semifinal playoff matchup — the school’s first trip to the semis in more than two decades — riding a five-game winning streak. But the result, a resounding 30-14 loss, was similarly disappointing.

The loss was marked by an early injury to star player Ashton McKenzie in the first quarter after a player fell on his left ankle. McKenzie is the team’s kicker, linebacker and fullback. He tried to return to the game at the start of the second half, but couldn’t play through the injury.

“Losing him that early really put us in a whole. It made it tough for us to come back. We tried though,” Coach Howard Langley told the Daily News. He called the injury a high ankle sprain.

Lincoln played Quarterback Ryan Camilo tough, sacking him seven times, according to the New York Post.

Lincoln’s Railsplitters will move on to face Erasmus at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 6.