V.S. North defeats Hewlett

Trailing Hewlett by a point midway through the third quarter of last Saturday’s Homecoming game between a pair of four-win teams, Valley Stream North’s Joe Ruscillo got his offense back in business with a defensive fumble recovery. Then the senior quarterback did something he has been waiting to do all season.

Ruscillo hooked up with wide-open senior Pat McGreevy, who, in his first action of the year, slipped behind the secondary on a wheel route, for a 37-yard touchdown to put the Spartans ahead for good in a 22-8 victory in a Nassau Conference III matchup. North’s defense didn’t allow a touchdown, and forced three turnovers in the second half. 

“Pat’s been out with a knee injury,” Ruscillo said of McGreevy. “He caught so many passes off that route last season, and I’m glad we were able to run it again. That touchdown made me the happiest I’ve been all year.”

Hewlett (4-3), which had posted one of the county’s biggest upsets of the season a week earlier, when its defense and special teams came up huge at Bethpage, moved the ball well at times against North, but had a couple of drives fizzle inside the red zone. “We have to go back and look at the film and see what we can do better next week against Glen Cove,” Bulldogs head coach Jay Iaquinta said. “The effort is there, that’s for sure.”

The Spartans (5-2) produced the lone score in the first half when Ruscillo, who was intercepted by a diving Jay Patel on the game’s opening possession, spotted senior Tom Canny in single coverage over the middle and lofted a perfect pass that Canny caught inside the Hewlett 40 and raced untouched into the end zone for a 54-yard touchdown. Canny tacked on the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

“We had a real tough loss last week,” Ruscillo said of North’s setback at Glen Cove. “We wanted to get off to a good start today with a big crowd behind us.”

Hewlett pulled some trickery on the ensuing possession after moving five yards on three plays, but a fake-punt pass completion to senior Malcolm Kahn to the North 25 was negated by a penalty. In the second quarter, a long run by senior quarterback Jeff Rizzo put the offense in business inside the 20, but the drive ended with an incomplete pass on fourth-and-11 from the 15.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Spartans head coach Tom Schiavo said. “We made some big plays on both sides of the ball.”

The tide turned quickly on the kickoff to start the second half, when Rizzo maneuvered a dynamic 90-yard return for a touchdown and senior Messiah Clark followed with the two-point conversion off a direct snap for an 8-7 advantage.

After the lead changed hands on McGreevy’s touchdown, the Bulldogs drove inside the 20 late in the third quarter but gained only two yards on a fourth-and-4. Midway through the fourth, North’s Dylan Feliu’s fumble recovery at midfield led to a game-sealing 5-yard touchdown pass from Ruscillo to senior Joe Kempton with 1:27 left.