Kennedy football rallies for .500 finish

Wins have been rare for the Kennedy football team in recent years, and this season started to trend that way following an 0-3 start. But a couple of unexpected personnel changes and not panicking helped the Cougars snap out of their funk and do the unthinkable.

Kennedy (4-4) won four of its last five games to finish the regular season at .500 for the first time since 2017, the last time the team qualified for the postseason. The four wins matched the program’s entire total of the previous four seasons combined.

“You never want to start out 0-3,” head coach John McGuire said. “But the boys were resilient. They believed in the system that we were doing, they bought in to the coaches, they bought in as a team to each other. They really came together.”

Kennedy was beaten handily in the season opener at Floral Park and outscored 28-6 during the second half of a 34-20 loss at Glen Cove the following week in which new quarterback Ray Torchia suffered a stress fracture in his wrist. A rain-slogged 20-7 defeat at Roosevelt on Sept. 23 resulted in an immediate team meeting.

“We had a real come-to-realization type of moment on the bus where we were talking to them that it’s now or never in terms of getting your season turned around, especially for the seniors,” McGuire said.

When junior Charlie Gampero took over at quarterback and Torchia moved back to running back, things began to turn around. After playing Division to a 12-all tie at halftime on Sept. 30, the Cougars exploded for 21 points in the third quarter en route to a 40-18 win, with Torchia scoring one of the touchdowns.

“We said to the team, ‘Just give us your best effort, we haven’t seen it yet,’” McGuire recalled saying at halftime. “And they came out and scored offensively, scored one on defense and just got the ball rolling.”

Reaching .500 was temporarily in jeopardy after a 27-7 loss at Hewlett on Oct. 13, but wins at Clarke and at home against winless Mineola clinched the mark.

Gampero threw three touchdown passes and ran for five more this season and Torchia had a coming out party in a 38-7 win against Valley Stream North with a 50-yard pick-six, a 33-yard scoring run, and a 78-yard touchdown catch while forcing a fumble on defense.

Kennedy scored 179 points this season, and many of them came with gravitas. Seven of the offense’s 23 touchdowns went for more than 50 yards and senior Geordi Ciprian added a 70-yard kickoff return score against Glen Cove.

“That’s one of those where the athletes make the coaches look smart,” McGuire said laughing.

Ciprian and Torchia co-lead the team with eight touchdowns and fellow senior Devin Pryor had three 100-yard rushing games with a score. McGuire credited an offensive line anchored by senior Brandon Goldstein and gritty Rocco Baglica for that production.

On defense, Brennan Cleary had a fumble return for a touchdown against Division and J.J. Pizzirusso had a pair of interceptions this fall. Senior linebacker Josh Polinsky also shined against North by forcing three fumbles -- recovering one – and Nick Tavalaro and Nico Bachas added picks.