Baldwin rolls into title game

Despite running the table in the regular season and advancing to the Nassau Conference I football semifinals, Baldwin, the preseason No. 8 seed, still had a lot to prove against a Massapequa team coming off a first-round upset of defending county champion Farmingdale.

And the Bruins, seeded No. 1 entering the playoffs, proved much the best on Hofstra’s turf Nov. 13 and moved one win away from their first championship since 2005. They played lights-out defense, posting their first shutout since opening day, and got 171 yards rushing and four touchdowns from senior Matt Eberhart in a convincing 35-0 victory.

“The entire community is excited,” Baldwin head coach Steve Carroll said. “We don’t get to play on turf often, but with our speed it makes us even tougher to stop. Our defense has been phenomenal all year. We made some big plays in the first half tonight when they got inside our 20.”

The Bruins (10-0) will battle sixth-seeded Syosset (6-4) for the title on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Hofstra. The Braves, in the championship game for the first time since 1974, scored with 11 seconds remaining to beat East Meadow, 36-30, in the earlier semifinal.

Baldwin made sure there was no such drama in the nightcap. It committed turnovers on each of its first two possessions, but a defense led by seniors Jared Myles (seven tackles, two sacks), Nick DeLuca (eight tackles, one sack), and Kadeem Langhorne didn’t crack. The Chiefs’ drives stalled at the 7- and 40-yard lines following the takeaways in the first and second quarters, respectively.

“The last thing we expected was to shut Massapequa out,” said Carroll, who lauded the work of defensive coaches Rich Carroll, Tom Catapano, and Frank Esposito. “We came in thinking they’d score against us, and we told our defensive guys they’d need to relax when it happened.”

The Bruins drove 88 yards on eight plays to open the scoring midway through the second quarter. Senior Chris Debique (115 yards on nine carries) broke away for 40 yards to set up Eberhart’s first trip to end zone on a 28-yard run. After DeLuca dismantled a Massapequa gadget play on 4th-and-5 from the Baldwin 27 for a drive-ending loss of nine yards, the offense made good on its first and only completion of the game.

“We had a little over a minute left in the half, and I wanted to do as much as we could with it,” Carroll explained. 

Senior quarterback Thomas York found senior Jared Warner in single coverage along the sideline and delivered a perfect throw that Warner caught in stride for a 64-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 52 seconds to go. “We tried it once earlier and it fell incomplete,” Carroll said. “York hit the second one beautifully.”

The rest of the night belonged to Eberhart and the defense. Eberhart scored on runs of 15, 26 and 4 yards in the second half.

“He’s not a big kid, but he’s explosive,” Carroll said of Eberhart. “He follows his blocks, and all it takes is one quick break right or left and he’s gone.”