Longwood 21, Commack 6: Jay Schuster rushed for 115 yards on 12 carries and scored Longwood‘s first touchdown midway through the first quarter. Schuster’s 46-yard run capped a six-play, 77-yard drive. Danny Myler ran for 21 yards on two carries in the drive and finished with 110 yards on 11 carries. Longwood had 374 total yards (323 rushing) and gained 14 first downs. Andy Herbst led Longwood‘s defense with 10 solo tackles and blocked an extra-point attempt. Sept. 27
Longwood 28, Brentwood 6 – John Lange’s 2- yard touchdown run capped a nine play, 63 yard drive that gave Longwood a 13-6 lead in the third quarter. Lange had 62 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns. Jay Schuster gained 113 yards on 13 carries as Longwood had 361 total yards. Linebacker Corey Drinkwater led the defense with nine tackles, and tackle Paul Corkery had six tackles and three sacks.
Longwood Football 1992
Longwood 13, Patchogue-Medford 9: Matt Simonton kicked field goals of 31 and 41 yards and safety Jay Schuster foiled a late Patchogue-Medford rally with an interception. Schuster, who gained 129 yards on 25 carries, scored from 1 yard early in the second quarter as Longwood took a 10-0 lead. Nov. 8
Few have noticed, but Longwood is guaranteed its first winning season in 12 years, and only its second in 22 years of football at the school. Led by first-year coach Kevin McCarthy, the Lions have gone 6-1 and are in second-place in Suffolk Division I after a 13-9 win over Patchogue-Medford Saturday. The only other winning season at Longwood was when the Lions went 5-3 in 1980. The school has never been in the county playoffs.
Longwood’s Time Comes First-ever win over Sachem puts Lions in Division I final: [SUFFOLK Edition]
By A.J. Benza. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 22 Nov 1992:
None of Longwood‘s six previous victories, not even its thriller over Connetquot earlier this year, could match its win over Sachem in yesterday’s Division I football semifinal.
It wasn’t so much that Longwood defeated Sachem, 21-14, with a patient, no-frills running game. It was more that the Lions doused the Flaming Arrows’ title hopes with its first-ever win over Sachem – at Sachem’s Woolley Field – in seven tries, including twice this season.
Any coach will tell you a playoff win is sweet. But there is an undeniable aura when it comes against Sachem, with its big enrollment and thick history books. Longwood‘s first-year coach, Kevin McCarthy, was up to the task, calling this game, `Operation Broken Arrow.’ And when the game ended, with Sachem’s final drive dead at midfield, McCarthy simply told his players, “Mission accomplished.”
“We waited practically the whole season for a crack at Sachem again,” McCarthy said. “And when it came down to it, we were ready.”
McCarthy’s squad quickly turned their coaches’ words into an understatement when the Lions scored on their sesond possession, 7:09 into the first quarter, on Elrich Bowlay-Williams’ 43-yard run. From that point on, McCarthy was relentless with the rushing game. Though Sachem tied the score at 7 on Dennis Kramer’s 1-yard run in the second quarter, the Lions eventually built a comfortable 21-7 lead on Williams’ 11-yard run and Jason Schuster’s 39-yard run.
And though Sachem made it mildly interesting with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Sean Considine to Pete Friedman and with a final drive that died at midfield in the game’s final 50 seconds, the outcome was evident 10 minutes earlier.
“We knew they like to throw the football, so we went with our running game to burn out the clock,” said Lions quarterback Kenny O’Connor, who attempted only one pass. “Our offense might not look pretty, but it works.”
Credit Longwood‘s entire front line for opening up huge holes for the quick and strong tandem of Schuster and Bowlay-Williams. And credit defensive standouts, Paul Corkery (10 tackles), Richard Fredericks (nine) and Vinny Wade (one interception) with halting Sachem.
“It’s never easy to beat a team after you’ve lost to them earlier in the year,” O’Connor said. “But it’s a sweet thing when you can pull it off. And this is what we’ve wanted for a long time.”
DIVISION I SEMIFINAL LONGWOOD 7 0 7 7 21 SACHEM 0 7 0 7 14
L – Bowlay-Williams 43 run (Simonton kick)
S – Kramer 1 run (Connelly kick)
L – Bowlay-Williams 11 run (Simonton kick)
L – Schuster 39 run (Simonton kick)
S – Freidman 9 pass from Considine (Connelly kick)
Lions Get the K-Bosch T-Birds roll to Division I crown behind All-LI back: [SUFFOLK Edition]
By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 29 Nov 1992
Around him, teammates milled about the locker room. Some talked, some exchanged hugs, some smiled. Chad Bosch just sat there, staring at his hand. His Connetquot uniform, the red one with the white No. 27 and the white zig-zag stripe, was caked with dirt and mud. He was soaked to the bone. His helmet rested at his feet. He was oblivious to it all. His attention was focused on the small patch of sod that he cradled in his left hand like a trophy.
“Look at this,” he said. “Isn’t this great? This is for all the years I’ve played here. I don’t want to take my uniform off. I don’t even want to move. I want to sit here all night. I love high school football. I love this. I’ll always remember this.”
And well he should. The 5-7, 155-pound All-Long Island senior recovered a fumble on the third play from scrimmage, scored a fourth-quarter touchdown on a 5-yard run, threw a 21-yard option pass and gained 185 yards on 26 carries as Connetquot defeated Longwood, 24-7, to win theSuffolk Division I championship game before a standing-room-only crowd of about 2,500 yesterday in Bohemia.
“You look at him and you ask yourself how he does what he does,” Connetquot coach Nick Masi said of Bosch, who also played a strong game on defense. “But he has the ability and he knows what to do with it. All he talked about all week was not losing this game. He wasn’t going to lose this one.”
Connetquot also got a nice 22-yard first-quarter touchdown reception by Jim Melchiona on a pass from sophomore quarterback Scott Coppola, a 1-yard touchdown run by Brian McGuire, a 36-yard field goal by Coppola and a defenseive effort that forced four turnovers. It was easy to see why it will meet Farmingdale in the inaugural Long Island Class I championship game Saturday at Hofstra Stadium.
And to think, this was the season that almost never happened for Bosch, almost never happened for Connetquot. First, Bosch needed a waiver from Section XI to participate, because he is a fifth-year senior. Even then, Masi believed his team would be hard-pressed to have a winning record. There was the controversial game against Longwood, a last-second win that turned into a last-second loss after the final play was ordered replayed.
“I always believed,” Bosch said. “You never know what will happen. But, to be honest with you, I kind of knew everything would work out. I had a feeling we would play Longwood. I had a feeling we would win. Right now, I’m the happiest kid in America.”
Not so Longwood. This season marked the first-ever postseason appearance by the Lions (7-3), only the second winning season ever in the 22-year history of the football program at Longwood. The Lions played their hearts out yesterday. Linemen Paul Corkery and Rich Fredericks and linebacker Corey Drinkwater did what they could to stop Connetquot. But they couldn’t stop Bosch.
“No matter what happened, we had a great season,” said first-year Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy, whose team battled austerity and a tough schedule to reach the county championship game. “These kids played great. But we turned the ball over, made mistakes in a championship game. If you make mistakes in a championship game, you go home.” Besides, he said, “That kid was unbelievable.”
Bosch did it all this season. He rushed for 1,914 yards and 15 touchdowns and returned two punts, a fumble and an interception for touchdowns. He threw two touchdown passes.
“I’m going to get something to put this in,” Bosch said as he sat there holding that piece of sod. “A case, something, and I’m going to put it with all my trophies. I’m going to look at it all the time – so I can remember how this feels.”
DIVISION I FINAL LONGWOOD 0 7 0 0 7 CONNETQUOT 10 7 0 7 24
C – FG Coppola 36
C – Melchiona 22 pass from Coppola (Coppola kick)
C – McGuire 1 run (Coppola kick)
L – Brown 37 pass from O’Connor (Simonton kick)
C – Bosch 5 run (Coppola kick)
