DiPietro, defense lead Carey over Long Beach

A ground attack buoyed by a stout offensive front and sophomore running back Justin DiPietro, combined with several red-zone defensive stands and three takeaways propelled Carey to a 34-14 victory at Long Beach Saturday in a Nassau Conference II football matchup between the No. 1 and 3 preseason seeds.

DiPietro had touchdown runs in the second, third and fourth quarters, the last of which covered 43 yards and iced the Seahawks’ second win in as many weeks. Christian Todaro and Nicholas Medoro both had touchdowns and interceptions, and Mark Vera also picked off a pass.

“Both games so far we’ve had equally strong games from our offense and defense,” Carey head coach Mike Stanley said. “We put our defense in a few tough situations today and those guys came up big with in-close stops and turnovers. We have a few things we’d like to clean up, but we have two quality wins against good opponents.”

The Seahawks, who defeated Glen Cove by 19 in the opener, left school at 9 a.m. to head to Long Beach Middle School for the 11 a.m. kickoff at Veterans Field. Stanley had only positive things to say about the morning start. “We liked it because there was no waiting around,” he said. “We had our team breakfast, got on the bus, warmed up and played.”

Senior Wyatt Katzen (4-yard run) and sophomore Brody Riedel (53-yard run) had touchdowns for the Marines, who opened with a win over Calhoun.

“Carey is big and strong, and more experienced than we are,” Long Beach head coach Scott Martin said. “They look like the team to beat in the conference. That’s not to say we didn’t have chances. We just couldn’t cash in. They did a good job jamming up our receivers and pressuring the quarterback.”

The Seahawks scored on their first two possessions and led 21-0 at halftime thanks in large part to a pair of second-quarter defensive stands. Todaro opened the scoring with a 30-yard touchdown run and Medoro caught a 6-yard scoring toss from senior quarterback Chris Obertis late in the first quarter.

It was 21-0 after DiPietro’s 4-yard touchdown early in the second. Long Beach was primed to answer that score once junior quarterback Charlie Conway raced 29 yards to the Carey 1. But after two negative yardage plays and an incomplete pass, Conway hit junior Max Schimmel inches from the goal line and the Seahawks took over on downs.

The Marines were back in the red zone just before halftime after junior Rocco Roda recovered a fumble, but Carey’s defense held again with Todaro getting an interception. The hosts got on the board early in the third when junior Jack Silva’s 51-yard catch set up Katzen’s touchdown.

But Carey’s all-senior offensive line of Ali Jouida, Howie Silverstein, Richie Metzger, Sean McNamee and Mateo Squillante did the rest. They average nearly 275 pounds and paved the way for DiPietro’s 134 yards and three trips to paydirt.

“Justin is a special player on both sides of the ball,” Stanley said of DiPietro. “He was our leading tackler last year at linebacker and is so tough to bring down as a runner.”

Carey heads to Sewanhaka next for another Saturday 11 a.m. kickoff. Long Beach is at Jericho Friday night at 6 p.m.

“It’s teamwork and we’re pushing every day,” Jouida said. “We play together and play for each other.”