Hewlett rallies past V.S. North

Last Saturday, Valley Stream North jumped out to a 12-point lead in its Nassau Conference III football first-round playoff matchup at Hewlett. But Bulldogs head coach Jay Iaquinta said he felt no need to panic, because he knew the rushing attack was more than capable of getting them back in the game in a hurry.

Jeremy Leguillow led the comeback, running for 169 yards to help Hewlett pull off a 35-18 comeback win.

“Leguillow is a great high school running back, and we have a nice offensive line,” Iaquinta said. “We knew we were a little bigger than these kids, and we said we were gonna try and pound them and that’s what we did.”

North came out of the gate hot, but the Spartans were unable to stop the Hewlett offense from grounding and pounding its way to victory. Helping backup Leguillow’s performance was quarterback Jeff Rizzo, who finished with 122 rushing yards, and Messiah Ajayi Clark, who finished with 76 rushing yards.

“They hit us where they should of hit us, which was right up the middle,” North head coach Tom Schiavo said. “We had trouble shutting all three of them down.”

The Spartans began the game with a lengthy drive, which was capped off by a two-yard rushing touchdown by quarterback Joe Ruscillo Then early in the second quarter Ruscillo would connect with Brian Carroll for a 10-yard touchdown pass, to give North a 12-point advantage.

With 6:34 left in the second Leguillow would get his team on the board with a three-yard rushing touchdown. Then under two minutes later he found his way into the end zone again to give Hewlett a 14-12 lead.

North would retake the lead when Ruscillo connected with Carroll for another touchdown. The Spartans took an 18-14 lead into the break. 

Despite trailing at halftime, Leguillow said there was not any doubt from his team that they could still win.

“Not one doubt at all,” he said. “We knew we were coming back, and would make our adjustments at halftime then come out strong.”

The senior captain sparked his team early in the second half, when with 8:55 remaining in the third he found the end zone for the third time. He took it home from two yards out to put Hewlett ahead 21-18.

Early on in the fourth quarter the Bulldogs would begin to pull away. With 11 minutes remaining, Rizzo found an open Tredd Smith in the left side of the end zone to give the hosts a 10-point advantage. 

With 3:42 left came the final dagger for North’s season came when Clark delivered a 10-yard rushing touchdown.

The Bulldogs move on to face defending champion Lawrence, which beat them 49-8 back on Oct. 11. But, Iaquinta says his team will be ready for the challenge.

“They’re one of the top teams on Long Island,” Iaquinta said. “But we’ll just prepare like we always have, and we think we can go in and win the game.”