Seaford goes down fighting

Fifth-seeded Seaford gave three-time defending Nassau Conference IV champion Roosevelt all it could handle in last Saturday night’s semifinal matchup at Hofstra that remained scoreless after three quarters.

Then, on the first snap of the fourth, senior tailback Shamari Kirkpatrick broke free for a 41-yard touchdown run to send the top-seeded Rough Riders on their way to a hard-fought 14-6 victory. Kirkpatrick scored from three yards out on the next series, providing a needed insurance touchdown against the pesky Vikings.

“We carried out our game plan and played as well as we could,” Seaford head coach Rob Perpall said. “Roosevelt is an older, bigger, stronger and faster team, but we showed so much heart. I’m as proud of this team as any I’ve coached.”

The Rough Riders (9-1) will try to make it four straight county titles this Saturday at 4 p.m. when they take on No. 3 Mineola. The Mustangs, in the finals for the first time since 2002, handed Roosevelt a 47-38 defeat back in Week 2.

“Seaford gave us a run for our money,” Roosevelt head coach Joe Vito said. “They did a nice job possessing the ball. We just had to stay calm and keep plugging away.

“Every week at halftime, we challenge ourselves to outscore the opponent in the second half,” Vito added. “So our mindset was the same.”

Kirkpatrick, who scored his 27th and 28th touchdowns of 2014, rushed for 159 yards on 26 carries. He has 2,069 yards rushing on the year. “We had him stopped on that first touchdown,” Perpall said. “The average back doesn’t get more than a few yards there. He’s like a baseball pitcher. He gets better and better the more he gets the ball.”

Each team had only one possession in the first quarter, and both defenses held to set the tone for a game completed in less than two hours. The Vikings (6-4) were stopped on a fourth-and-1 at the Roosevelt 34, and soon their stop-unit had its back against the wall after Kirkpatrick ran for 40 yards on five carries and Justin Terry caught a 17-yard pass to set up a first-and-goal. However, the Rough Riders had four tries from inside the 10 and couldn’t punch it in.

In the second quarter, Roosevelt drove inside the Seaford 30 but stalled after senior John Schaller batted down a Stephan Vailes pass.

“The defense was great, but our offense was equally as great,” Perpall said.

Trailing 14-0 after Kirkpatrick’s second touchdown, the Vikings engineered a 59-yard scoring drive to get on the board with 3:09 left. They converted their fourth fourth-down attempt, a 2-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Andrew Cain to senior Patrick Bizzarro (100 total yards), to set up a hook-and-ladder touchdown from Cain to sophomore Danny Roell to Bizzarro from 18 yards out.

Seaford’s final possession began at its own 41 with 55 seconds remaining, but three incomplete passes and a sack by Yusuf Young ended it.

“We ended up a good football team, and I’m excited about next year,” Perpall said.