Garden City ousts Long Beach

Chris Mixon scored three touchdowns, including a 73-yard run midway through the third quarter, to lead undefeated Garden City to a 36-8 victory over Long Beach in a Nassau Conference II football semifinal playoff game last Saturday at Hofstra.

Mixon, a senior, also had one of three interceptions for a Trojans’ defense that kept the Marines out of the end zone following a game-opening 80-yard touchdown drive. Sophomore quarterback Colin Hart had passing and rushing scores for No. 1 Garden City (10-0), which advanced to meet Carey in the championship game.

“Long Beach is a tough team to hold down,” Mixon said. “We had the mentality that they were going to score. They jumped on us early, but we kept our heads up and felt good after going up 14-8 and forcing a turnover.”

The fifth-seeded Marines (6-4) held Garden City to 11 first downs and ran 21 more plays from scrimmage, but couldn’t overcome four turnovers and eight penalties, including a costly delay-of-game flag late in the third quarter while trailing by 14.

“I thought our guys played well, especially in the first half,” Long Beach head coach Scott Martin said. “They shut down our passing game. They’ve got athletes out there playing one-on-one coverage and they pressure the quarterback. We moved the ball OK, but we couldn’t sustain drives after the first one.”

Senior Tyreek Bromley, who broke out for 182 yards rushing and two touchdowns to lead the Marines over defending county champion MacArthur in the first round, had 90 yards on 22 carries against a Garden City defense that’s allowed fewer than seven points per game. Senior quarterback Sam Brown, who enjoyed a monster campaign through the air, went 8-for-22 for 114 yards and one touchdown with three interceptions.

“They wanted to force Sam to make quick decisions,” Martin said. 

Long Beach came out throwing from the get-go and went 80 yards on eight plays to strike first. Brown connected with senior Shamile Dennis for eight yards, with senior Thomas Rutherig for 33, and drew a 15-yard pass interference call on a deep ball to senior Vincent Deale to move into the red zone. After a short gain by Bromley, Rutherig caught an 11-yard touchdown pass for a 6-0 lead. Dennis’ two-point conversion grab made it 8-0.

The Trojans went three-and-out on their first series but regained possession on junior Matthew Granville’s interception and return to the Long Beach 2. One play later, Mixon was in the end zone. Kicker Billy Rousakis’ first of four successful extra points cut the margin to 8-7.

Garden City led 14-8 at halftime on Mixon’s 16-yard touchdown reception and scored on its second possession of the second half when Mixon busted the longest play of the game and added the two-point conversion for a 22-8 lead.

On the ensuing possession, Long Beach drove from its own 30 to the Trojans’ 1 but failed to cash in. Deale caught two passes totaling 33 yards, the second of which was ruled inches from the end zone, and the threat ended after four incomplete passes.

The next time Brown aired it out, Trevor Yeboah-Kodie picked it off and Garden City needed to go only 18 yards to lead 29-8 on Hart’s 1-yard touchdown run.

“Our kids should be proud of themselves,” Martin said. “We started the season with only 20-something kids and battled through some adversity to get to Hofstra.”