Oceanside picks off East Meadow

Oceanside is headed back to the Nassau Conference I football semifinals at Hofstra following an impressive 26-7 victory at third-seeded East Meadow last Saturday afternoon in a first-round playoff matchup.

The Sailors scored on the opening drive of the game and forced a stunning seven turnovers—four interceptions and three fumble recoveries—to set up another postseason meeting with Massapequa.

Junior Dillon Tveter had a pair of interceptions and a pivotal touchdown reception as time expired in the third quarter for No. 6 Oceanside (6-3), which advances to face the second-seeded Chiefs for a fourth straight season in the playoffs Thursday at 4 p.m. Massapequa topped the Sailors 21-6 a month ago.

“I thought we played awesome defensively and had a nice opening drive to put them in an early hole,” Oceanside head coach Rob Blount said. “East Meadow does a lot of things well that worried us, but we matched their physicality and finally broke some big plays in the second half.”

Junior Jayson Constabile scored the lone touchdown for the Jets, the No. 10 preseason seed, who carried a five-game winning streak into the playoffs and finished 7-2 in longtime head coach Vin Mascia’s final campaign.

East Meadow, who turned the ball over each of its five first-half possessions, trailed only 9-0 at halftime. Sophomore quarterback Luke Villela had a 2-yard touchdown run and sophomore Ryan Pender booted a 30-yard field goal in the first and second quarters, respectively.

“We had only three turnovers all season before today,” Mascia said. “I told the guys at halftime we were still very much in it despite playing our worst half of the year. But we never got into sync on offense. Oceanside came in here battle-tested and did a great job.”

Ben Rivezzo, Brian Kraemer, Brady Nardone, Chris LaLima and Tveter had takeaways for Oceanside’s defense in the first half. However, it was still 9-0 when the unit forced East Meadow’s first punt of the day late in the third quarter. Then, on the ensuing possession, Villela hit Tveter with a short slant on third-and-10 and he took it to the house for a 64-yard touchdown.

“Everyone kept blocking for me down the field,” Tveter said. “It was nice to put some points on the board to help us win.”

Pender added a 32-yard field goal and Justin Diez broke free for a 51-yard touchdown run to round out the scoring. Simon Wareham had 8 solo tackles and Chase Haffey added an interception.

Eric Garcia had a leaping interception near the end zone to halt an Oceanside drive in the second quarter and Marcus Diaz recovered a fumble in the third for East Meadow, which was unable to get into the red zone. Constabile’s touchdown covered 52 yards.

“Probably two-thirds of our team had never played a varsity snap before this season,” Mascia said. “This group rose to the occasion and got better week after week. It didn’t end the way we wanted, but it was a tremendous season.”