East Meadow eliminates Freeport

Good luck trying to pick out one most valuable player from East Meadow in its 40-20 victory over No. 5 Freeport in the first-round of the Nassau Conference I football playoffs last Friday.

It could have been senior running back John Wilson, who led the team with 121 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 23 carries. Or maybe it was the offensive line of seniors Tom Maltese, Marcos Watkins, David McGee and juniors Matt Mascia and Mario Froelich that paved the way for 450 yards rushing on 61 carries. Junior Tom Provenzano had 55 yards rushing, including a 41-yard touchdown and a fumble recovery.

Perhaps it’s junior linebacker Wilfer Ibanez who forced a key fumble at his own 3-yard line that was scooped up by Provenzano, or junior A.J. Bonds, who had an interception inside the East Meadow 5 at the end of the first half with the Red Devils driving for a tie. “We’re not a star system,” head coach Vin Mascia said. “We don’t have that [star]. What we have is a bunch of good, gritty high school football players that play together.”

The Jets, who advance to the semifinals at Hofstra against No.6 Syosset Thursday at 4 p.m., simply wore down the Red Devils and completely took control of the game with a pair of second-half scoring drives to extend a seven-point halftime lead. By the time sophomore quarterback Anthony Love-Kemper (12 carries, 133 rushing yards, two touchdowns) followed a block by junior Billy Piano and turned a keeper into a 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, East Meadow had possession for 23 of 27 plays and more than 12 minutes of the clock and included three fourth-down conversions. The Red Devils sandwiched only a three-and-out possession around a 16-play, 80-yard drive and a seven-play, 68-yard drive by the Jets.

“That’s what they do,” Freeport head coach Russ Cellan said. “They just pound you and they’re good at it. That’s their gameplan and they make no bones about it.”

Wilson capped the opening possession of the third quarter with a 2-yard run, helping East Meadow extend its lead to 34-20. He carried the ball eight times for 26 yards on the drive with Love-Kemper completing his only pass attempt—a 20-yarder to junior Zach Fritz to bring the Jets into the red zone. “He just pounds the ball,” Mascia said of Wilson. “And our offensive line is phenomenal and coached perfectly. Our offensive line wins games. [Defenses] lose a step after a while, because it’s a physical game we play.”

The teams traded touchdowns throughout the first half, with Freeport breaking off a number of long plays to keep pace on the scoreboard. Sophomore quarterback Rashad Tucker knotted the game at 20-20 in the second quarter with a 45-yard scoring strike to senior Jorden Curtis. Tucker also had a 68-yard run to the East Meadow 2 on the second offensive play of the game, and senior D’monte Woody raced 45 yards untouched into the end zone to give Freeport a short-lived 13-6 lead.

“We gave up a couple of big runs,” Mascia said. “They’re so explosive. Those kids are great and we were worried sick over them. They popped [a couple] of quick ones on us.”