Football playoffs open with a bang

CAREY 26, LONG BEACH 12         

Carey is headed back to the Nassau Conference II semifinals at Hofstra, where it’ll get another crack at defending champion Garden City.

Senior Andrew Gentile had interceptions on each of Long Beach’s first two possessions, setting up the game’s first touchdown and thwarting one of the Marines’ best drives of the day, to spark the fourth-seeded Seahawks to a 26-12 victory in Saturday’s opening round.

Senior Michael Locicero, who lined up at tailback, receiver and quarterback, rushed for two touchdowns, including a game-sealing 62-yard scamper with 4:19 remaining, senior Rob Zorn had his 13th touchdown of the season and led the defense with 11 tackles, and senior Thomas Opitz added eight tackles and a sack.

Long Beach was led by quarterback Tom Rowley’s passing and rushing touchdowns and sophomore Zamarr Allen’s 1.5 sacks.

MASSAPEQUA 28, BALDWIN 7

Timing can be everything.

Massapequa had it, and Baldwin didn’t in the first round of Saturday’s Nassau Conference I playoff battle. The fifth-seeded Chiefs generated three big plays, including one after a Bruins penalty and another off a turnover, to run away with a 28-7 victory.

The backbreaking play, a 97-yard touchdown run by Massapequa sophomore Jack Korber midway through the third quarter, came two plays after Baldwin fumbled at the Chiefs 5. Taking the second-down handoff to the left, Korber turned upfield and outran everyone, even weaving between a pair of last-ditch tackle efforts by junior Travis Hylton and sophomore Matt Guilfoyle at the Bruins 30 to open up a 14-point Massapequa lead.

“You would normally think that in a big game it’s the little things that make a difference,” Chiefs head coach Kevin Shippos said. “But today, we had a lot of big plays.”

The big plays offset a mostly solid defensive effort by the Bruins, who slowed down a Massapequa attack that had piled up at least 49 points in each of the previous four games.

“We didn’t make the plays when we had to,” Baldwin head coach Steve Carroll said. “They were obviously the better team today. We had one nice march and fumbled it, and it was all downhill from there.”