Longwood 45, Northport 6: Chris Meyer had 67 yards on five carries for three touchdowns and Jonas Nicholson had 156 yards on 17 carries to lead Longwood. The Lions’ running game totaled 424 yards on 37 carries. Meyer totaled 11 tackles at middle linebacker. Sept. 24
Longwood 48, Smithtown 22: Longwood amassed 345 yards on the ground behind an offensive line, anchored by Steve Gordon, Adam Wachter and Rich Otto. Junior running back Jerry Myler scored on a 14-yard run early in the second quarter to cap a seven-play, 78-yard drive to put Longwood ahead to stay, 13-6. Terence Lebby ran up the middle for a 45-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter and then added a 2-yard run right before halftime as the Lions (2-0) built a 27-6 halftime lead. Longwood defensive tackle Russell Matvay recorded two sacks and a fumble recovery. Lenny Lupo threw a pair of touchdown passes for Smithtown (0-2).
LONGWOOD 6 21 14 7 48 SMITHTOWN 0 6 0 16 22
L – Myler 2 run (kick failed)
S – Lupo 1 run (kick failed)
L – Myler 14 run (Matvay kick)
L – Lebby 45 run (Matvay kick)
L – Lebby 2 run (Matvay kick)
L – Riley 2 run (Matvay kick)
L – Riley 55 punt return (Matvay kick)
S – Assan 18 pass from Lupo (Gizzi pass from Lupo)
L – Myler 2 run (Matvay kick)
S – Cutalo 15 pass from Lupo (Gizzi pass from Lupo)
Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 01 Oct 1995:
Longwood 28, Connetquot 0: Longwood‘s defense, led by linebackers Chris Meyer (seven tackles) and Carlos Vega (five), held Connetquot to three first downs and 89 yards of total offense as the Lions blanked the defending Division I champion. The Lions (3-0) opened the scoring midway through the first quarter when Vega recovered a fumble in the end zone on Longwood‘s second possession. The key play of the 45-yard drive was a 38-yard pass from Brian Grazidei to Russell Matvay that set up a first-and-goal on the Thunderbirds’ 7. Connetquot is 1-2. Oct. 8
Longwood 57, Centereach 6: Sophomore wide receiver Marc Riley caught touchdown passes of 28 and 58 yards and ran for a 25-yard score to lead Longwood(4-0). Riley had 86 yards and two touchdowns on two receptions and ran for 31 yards on three rushes.
Riley’s first score, a 28-yard touchdown reception six minutes into the first quarter, capped a three-play, 35-yard drive that made it 8-0. Sophomore kicker Kevin Willi kicked the extra point to increase the lead to 9-0. Willi was 4-for-5 in extra-point attempts.
Junior quarterback Brian Grazidei threw for 86 yards on 2-for-3 passing. Senior tailback Jonas Nicholson rushed for 115 yards on 13 carries to lead the Lions on the ground.
Longwood led 51-0 in the fourth quarter until Centereach (1-3) got on the board with Tim Winn’s 50-yard touchdown reception from Matt Ziminski.
CENTEREACH 0 0 0 6 6 LONGWOOD 9 22 7 19 57
L – Safety (punt snapped out of end zone)
L – Riley 28 pass from Grazidei (Willi kick)
L – Safety (punt snapped out of the end zone)
L – Lebby 2 run (Willi kick)
L – C. Meyer 12 run (Willi kick)
L – Riley 58 pass from Grazidei (kick failed)
L – Riley 25 run (Willi kick)
L – Reynolds 3 run (Paolino kick)
L – Lebby 46 run (kick failed)
C – Winn 50 pass from Ziminski (run failed)
L – B. Meyer 90 kickoff return (kick failed) _ Oct. 15′
Longwood 35, Floyd 7: Jonas Nicholson rsuhed for 111 yards on 11 carries and scored two touchdowns as Longwood took sole possession of first place in Division I with a 6-0 record. Teammate Marc Riley returned a punt 75 yards for a score in the first quarter as the Lions opened a 20-0 lead. Jerry Myler opened the scoring with a 40-yard run on a trap play for Longwood and Nicholson added longest touchdown run of the season, a 50-yarder, before Riley broke his punt return. Floyd (2-4) was limited to 26 yards and one first down in the first half by the Longwood defense, which was led by linebacker Chris Meyer’s two batted passes and one sack. “They tried to play eight men on the line of scrimmage, but we just stayed patient and waited for something to break,” Longwood assistant coach Vinnie Ammirato said. “It was 20-0 at halftime and the kids felt good about themselves. It seemed like we were getting one big play after another.” Oct. 29
Longwood 48, Commack 0: Sophomore Mark Riley ran back the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and sparked a 28-point quarter en route to the first undefeated season (8-0) in Longwood’s 33-year history. Riley also scored on an 11-yard run in the quarter. Halfback Kevin Reynolds scored twice on runs of 11 and 1 yards in the second quarter. Reynolds led the Lions on the ground with 10 carries for 102 yards. Jonas Nicholson added six carries for 88 yards and one touchdown. Commack is 0-8. – Nov. 12, 1995
Fullback Slips Wet Sachem `D’:
By Greg Sarra. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 21 Oct 1995:
Longwood football coach Kevin McCarthy knows that Sachem tailback James O’Neal gets his yards. He concedes that; all coaches do because O’Neal has been unstoppable for two years against Division I opponents.
With that in mind, McCarthy preached to his football team that the way to beat Sachem in last night’s Division I game was to contain O’Neal and not give up the big play.
“Not stop him,” McCarthy said. “Contain him and don’t let him go the distance with a big play.”
McCarthy’s defense listened. O’Neal gained 163 yards on 25 carries but never broke the big play. In fact, O’Neal averages just over three touchdowns per game and scored none last night at Sachem in a rain-drenched game.
The star running back turned out to be a guy from the other side, Chris Meyer, a little known fullback who had the game of his life.
Meyer scored three touchdowns, including a 78-yard jaunt on a dive play with 5:32 left in the fourth quarter, as Longwood scored 35 second half points to beat Sachem 35-14
“Our line was great,” Meyer said. `It was straight ahead, nothing tricky about it, and we were blowing them off the ball. I was hitting the secondary without being hit at the line.”
Sachem (3-2) opened a 7-0 first quarter lead after quarterback Matt Clark scored on a 7-yard run and Ryan Russo added the conversion.
But the second half belonged to Meyer and the Longwood offense. Meyer scored on a 1-yard run to cap a 13-play, 80-yard drive to open the third quarter and get Longwood (5-0) within 7-6. The two-point conversion put Longwood up 8-7.
“We missed a lot of tackles in the second half,” Sachem coach Fred Fusaro said. “They converted a third-and-20 play to key that drive. We needed to stop them there and we didn’t.”
It was Meyer on that play, off left tackle for 30 yards to the Sachem five to set up his scoring run. He finished with 243 yards on 18 carries.
“Coach said if our front five block tonight we win the game,” Meyer said. “And they definitely blocked.”
That would be Adam Wachter, Steve Gordon, Jim Fernandes, Terrence Lebby and Tom Baker.
“We have some question marks at linebacker and they exposed that,” Fusaro said. “Defensively, I’m at my wits end.”
After a long touchdown drive by Longwood made it 14-7, the game’s turning point came when guard Wachter blocked John Scharf’s kick, picked up the ball and rumbled 13 yards for another touchdown and a 20-7 lead.
“That play killed us,” Fusaro said.
“This was fun,” said Wachter as he wiped the mud and rain from his brow.
It usually is when you win. LONGWOOD 0 0 14 21 35 SACHEM 7 0 0 7 14
S – Clark 7 run (Russo kick)
L – Meyer 1 run (Nicholson run)
L – Nicholson 9 run (pass failed)
L – Wachter 13 fumble return (Willi kick)
S – Campbell 27 pass from Clark (Russo kick)
L – Meyer 2 run (Willi kick)
L – Meyer 78 run (Paolino kick)
HIGH SCHOOLS / Doing Just Enough / 2 big plays carry undefeated Longwood past P-M:
By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 05 Nov 1995
So, this is how fickle football fate can be. You can be Patchogue-Medford and move the ball almost at will all afternoon, going here and going there, only to lose your grip at the most inopportune times and fumble it and throw it away – and have it all be only so much window shopping. Or you can be Longwood and go almost nowhere, but break a run or two – and come home with all these wonderful goodies.
Like this: Longwood 12, Patchogue-Medford 7.
Which certainly made this little sojurn to Patchogue a memorable one for Longwood yesterday, since it was a battle for first place in Division I and that the Lions not only solidified their standing, but are on the brink of the first undefeated regular season in school history – since football started in 1962.
“Unbelievable,” Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy said. “It was a dogfight. But that’s football.”
It sure is.
See, Longwood (7-0) had 254 yards of total offense, which isn’t so bad. Until you consider that 179 of those yards came on three runs by senior tailback Jonas Nicholson, 149 of them on back-to-back carries by Nicholson in the first and second quarters. One on a 76-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds left in the first, the other on a 73-yard touchdown run just 2:10 into the second. Which, with two failed conversions, made it 12-0.
Patchogue-Medford (5-2), meanwhile, gained 295 yards of total offense, including 148 on a workmanlike 28 carries by senior Doug Sloan. But he fumbled three times – all inside the Longwood 25-yard line. And quarterback Michael Martin, who went 8-for-14 for 137 yards, threw two interceptions – one at the Longwood 10, the other at the Longwood 26.
All of which negated a terrific performance, which included a 39-yard second-quarter touchdown pass from Martin to the acrobatic Kevin Csoka. Which negated the effect of the fumble by Nicholson at the Longwood 26, the recovery by Csoka with 2:53 left, the gutsy 17-yard gain by Sloan on third-and-17 that gave the Raiders a first down by the width of a credit card – really; referee Joe Dooley checked it with his own – with 1:17 left. Which ended with two straight incompletions into the end zone, the last one a pass to Csoka that was batted down by Nicholson.
“I just sat in the locker room and cried,” Csoka said, much later. “We had so many opportunities to win and that hurts. We know we outplayed them. That hurts. I think everyone who watched this game thinks we should have won. That hurts. But we didn’t win. And, that hurts most.”
“If they didn’t fumble away those chances, turn over the ball, we’re in big trouble,” McCarthy said. “Because that’s a good football team. But that happens. And we knew that that was the way this game would be. We had to make the big play. And we had to prevent the big play. That’s what we did.”
The first touchdown run by Nicholson, who gained only 46 yards on 18 other carries, followed a 57-yard punt by Martin. The second touchdown run by the 5-10, 175-pound Nicholson, who has gained more than 1,000 yards this season, scoring seven touchdowns, followed a change of possession. Yes, Patchogue-Medford moved 65 yards on six plays on the next possession, scoring on that pass as Martin looked off one receiver, then lofted a ball for Csoka – who turned his man around to make the catch.
But, in the end, all of it was not enough. Not to compensate for the things that did go wrong.
“They’re a great team,” Nicholson said. “They’re tough, the toughest team we’ve faced. They didn’t allow us to do much. But we did enough.”
And that was the frustration for Patchogue-Medford. Which is why, when it was over, Patchogue-Medford coach Bob Sconone wandered off alone through school – figuring it was better off to blow off steam somewhere else, than in front of his team.
“I wish I could have had one more opportunity at that last ball,” Csoka said. “Then, well . . . maybe we could have won.” Maybe. But, maybe not.
See, you can’t argue with fate.
Longwood Edges P-M:
By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 19 Nov 1995
The shoe was on the other foot this time. Here was Longwood, unbeaten for the first time since the football program started in 1962, having taken it to Patchogue-Medford all afternoon, suddenly looking down the barrel at overtime.
There was 6:34 left in regulation, a berth in the Suffolk Division I football championship game on the line, and Patchogue had just scored on an 8-yard run by Doug Sloan to trim the Longwood lead from 14-7 to 14-13.
“We practiced overtime situations three times this week,” Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy said, afterward. “We were fully prepared for that.”
No need. Because Patchogue coach Bob Sconone first sent his kicking team onto the field to attempt the possible game-tying extra point, then called timeout – and reconsidered. Instead, he elected to attempt a two-point conversion, because, as he said, “We had time left. I figured we’d get the ball back again. And, I wanted the pressure on them.”
It never happened. Instead, quarterback Michael Martin rolled out, was pressured by a host of defenders – among them linebacker Chris Meyer – and threw in the direction of Eric Rossi and Kevin Csoka. But Meyer batted it down and Martin was intercepted on two subsequent possessions, as Longwood beat Patchogue, 14-13, to advance to the championship game against Sachem Saturday at Longwood.
“Our kids wanted this one,” McCarthy said. “Bad. Every year, we always seem to have one game that is a letdown and we felt that that game was the last time we played them – but we were still good enough to win. We didn’t want another letdown here.”
Three weeks ago, Patchogue marched all over Longwood – and lost, 12-7. That because it committed five turnovers inside the 25-yard line.
Considering that and the fact his kicker, Andy Weaver, hit the crossbar on a 32-yard field-goal attempt with Longwood ahead, 3-0, in the first quarter, Sconone decided he wanted to avoid overtime at all costs. “We thought about it,” Sconone said, afterward, “and we wanted to go for two. Our kids wanted to go for two. It was like, `If we miss it, we’ll get it back again.’ And, if we got it, the pressure was all on them. They have a great kicker. We missed that field goal. I didn’t want to go to overtime.”
Longwood (9-0) took the lead on a 26-yard field goal by Russell Matay – who had been sidelined for six weeks with a broken leg – with 4:41 remaining in the first. After Weaver missed his field goal, Matay missed a 35-yard attempt in the second quarter.
Patchogue (5-4) opened the second half with a 26-yard run by Sloan, then, on the third play of the second half Martin found Sloan all alone on the left side for a 38-yard touchdown pass. The Lions trimmed the margin to 7-6 on a 35-yard field goal by Matay with 5:06 left in the third and then took a 14-7 lead with 7:30 left in the game on a 15-yard run on a reverse by Marc Riley.
Even after the touchdown by Sloan, Patchogue had a chance. But Riley ended the next Patchogue possession with an interception and Jonas Nicholson, who gained 128 yards for Longwood, ended the game with an interception.
“It was just like a reversal of the last game,” McCarthy said. “This time, we did everything but score.” But they did more than enough to win.
“We played good,” McCarthy said. “We played good.”
SUFFOLK DIVISION I SEMIFINAL PATCHOGUE-MEDFORD 0 0 7 6 13 LONGWOOD 3 0 3 8 14
L – FG 26 Matay
PM – Sloan 38 pass from Martin (Weaver kick)
L – FG 35 Matay
L – Riley 15 run (Meyer pass from Grazidei)
PM – Sloan 8 run (pass failed)
Meyer Takes Collotta Award. The Suffolk County Coaches Association also presented the Bob Collotta Award to the linebacker of the year. Longwood‘s Chris Meyer was the fourth recipient of the award, named for the former Hills West football coach. Meyer had 71 tackles, including seven sacks, three blocked passes, three interceptions and four fumble recoveries in 10 games for the Lions, who finished 8-0 in Division I.
“He was the heart and soul of the Longwood football team,” Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy said. “I’ve coached three all-State linebackers and he was the only one that could do it all. He could fill, scrape, cover and blitz. And he made field calls like no one before him.”
Huntington’s Lou Pontrello was the runner-up for the award. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 08 Dec 1995