Carey holds off Long Beach

Carey is headed back to the Nassau Conference II semifinals at Hofstra, where it’ll get another crack at defending champion Garden City.

Senior Andrew Gentile had interceptions on each of Long Beach’s first two possessions, setting up the game’s first touchdown and thwarting one of the Marines’ best drives of the day, to spark the fourth-seeded Seahawks to a 26-12 victory in last Saturday’s opening round.

Senior Michael Locicero, who lined up at tailback, receiver and quarterback, rushed for two touchdowns, including a game-sealing 62-yard scamper with 4:19 remaining, senior Rob Zorn had his 13th touchdown of the season and led the defense with 11 tackles, and senior Thomas Opitz added eight tackles and a sack as Carey (6-3) advanced to meet the undefeated Trojans this Friday.

“We threw different things at them offensively and our defense played really well,” said Seahawks head coach Mike Stanley, who employed sophomore Andrew Ris at quarterback for 90 percent of snaps. “They’ve got such a dangerous offense,” he added. “To get the turnovers we did was huge.”

The fifth-seeded Marines (5-4), who lost 19-14 at home to Carey in Week 6 when Locicero (134) and Zorn combined for 251 rushing yards, reached the playoffs for the second time in three years under head coach Scott Martin and twice battled back from two scores down to stay within striking distance. They got a touchdown pass and touchdown run from senior quarterback Tom Rowley.

“The bottom line was we didn’t move the ball in the second half except for Rowley’s touchdown run,” Martin said. “Down one score we had a bunch of possessions with a chance to tie but we couldn’t sustain drives.

“We had a good year,” he added. “We went toe to toe with some of the best teams in the county.”