Baldwin rushes past Oceanside

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Over the past few years, Baldwin football head coach Steve Carroll felt his team lacked a true signature win. Last Saturday afternoon, his Bruins were presented with a crucial Homecoming matchup against rival Oceanside, and this time were more than ready to prove themselves. 

With a large student body crowd behind it, Baldwin rushed for five touchdowns, and came away with a memorable 35-24 victory.

“Today we got a signature win,” Carroll said. “This is a win you can walk around and talk about for a long time. Coach [Rob] Blount is a great football coach, and they have a great football team, and we were able to beat them. Big, big win for us.”

Baldwin’s victory would not have been possible without contributions on the ground from senior wideout Chris Nunez-Saunders. The Bruins trailed early in the third quarter before Nunez put them ahead with back-to-back touchdown rushes, from 24 and 31 yards, respectively. 

“He’s like the fastest kid in the county,” Carroll said. “We hit the jet sweep with him, and he had two big touchdown runs.”

Nunez-Saunders’ two quick strikes took Baldwin from down three, to up 28-17. Senior running back Jonathan Debique then added on a two-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to help secure the victory for the Bruins, and improve the squad to 3-2 on the season. 

While it was a special day for Baldwin, it was a concerning one for the Sailors, who fell to 2-3.

Oceanside briefly took a lead at the beginning of the third quarter, when junior running back Derek Cruz found junior quarterback Tommy Heuer in the end zone to complete a surprising 25-yard touchdown pass connection. But the Sailors were unable to slow down the Bruins explosive running attack afterwards, and were outscored 21-7 the rest of the way.

“We’re not a good football team right now,” Oceanside head coach Rob Blount said. “We’re not playing physical, we’re not making tackles, and we’re not blocking. We got a long way to go. We’re young at spots, and we’re not getting enough contributions from certain people.”

The rushing trio of Nunez-Saunders, Debique and senior running back Matt Washington was the ultimate difference maker in the contest. The three players combined for 301 yards on the ground. 

“Today they couldn’t run with us,” Carroll said. “They have strong kids, but they don’t have kids with our speed.”

Debique contributed on both sides of the ball, rushing for a pair of touchdowns, and making nine tackles on defense. 

The Sailors will look to get back on track in a hurry, when they host Hempstead this Saturday for Homecoming at 3:30 p.m. Baldwin will head to Massapequa for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff, looking to extend its current winning streak to three. 

“I’m so pumped for my team,” Nunez-Saunders said. “The last few years we haven’t had a big win like this, so this feels really great.”