Elmont holds off Mepham, 35-33

Clinging to a two-point lead over Mepham and pinned inside its own 5-yard line late in the fourth quarter thanks to three penalties over a four-play span, Elmont went to its bread-and-butter to not only get out of trouble but back in the win column.

Senior quarterback Aaron Ruthman and junior receiver Chester Anderson hooked up for two crucial first downs in the last three minutes to seal the Spartans’ 35-33 victory in a pivotal Conference II football matchup last Saturday in blustery conditions that forced most of their Homecoming festivities to be canceled.

“We had a good day running the ball, but when push comes to shove we’re going to our strength,” Elmont head coach Jay Hegi said. “We’re a passing team. With a strong-armed quarterback like Ruthman and a stud receiver like Anderson, it was an easy decision.”

Ruthman went 19-for-26 for 290 yards and three touchdowns, and sophomore Joshua Milfort St. Cyr caught two scores, ran for two and capped a successful gadget two-point conversion play that put the Spartans (5-2) up by eight with 6:39 remaining. 

“For a sophomore, he’s a beast,” Ruthman said of Milfort St. Cyr, who less than a minute into the game busted a 38-yard touchdown run up the middle and finished with 246 yards from scrimmage.

The Pirates (4-3) got three touchdown passes from junior quarterback Michael Priois (16 of 22, 184 yards), including two to senior Matt Conry, but never led and came up short on a potential game-tying two-point conversion try with 3:49 to go following senior standout Michael Valentino’s 2-yard touchdown run. “It was another crazy game and we battled,” Mepham head coach Anthony Cracco said. “We just didn’t make enough plays. We couldn’t get the big defensive stop we needed.”

It was Mepham’s fourth high-scoring game, and third in a row, decided by three points or fewer. The Pirates lost 36-33 to Carey, beat Sewanhaka, 36-33, and lost to Long Beach, 47-45. “Next week we’ve got Garden City, so it’s another challenge,” Cracco said. “We want to have a good showing going into the playoffs.”

Elmont, which closes the regular season against struggling Jericho, was coming off a tough loss of its own, 20-19 at defending county champion MacArthur. “We knew we needed to bounce back,” Hegi said. 

The Spartans took a 21-14 halftime lead on a beautiful 5-yard fade from Ruthman to Anderson with 10 seconds left in the second quarter. They extended the advantage to 27-14 on Milfort St. Cyr’s 21-yard run in the third, but Mepham scored two quick touchdowns in the fourth — a 25-yard run by Valentino (175 total yards, two defensive sacks) and a 27-yard reception by Conry — and it was tied at 27 with 7:34 to go.

Elmont’s eventual winning drive covered 71 yards and was capped by a two-point conversion out of Hegi’s bag of tricks. Ruthman, from a shotgun formation, handed off to Milfort St. Cyr, who tossed it to Lucas Mathieu, who flipped it back to the quarterback. With so many options, including room to run, Ruthman found a wide open Milfort St. Cyr to make it 35-27. “I had confidence in the play,” Hegi said.