Babylon holds off Miller Place

Another week has gone by in the high school football season and it was another victory for Babylon.

After starting the season with wins over Glenn, Port Jefferson, and Mt. Sinai, the Panthers held their Homecoming game against Miller Place last Saturday night and picked up a 57-48 Suffolk Division IV victory in what was a back-and-forth affair that featured plenty of offensive fireworks.

The Panthers took control early, scoring the first nine points of the game, starting with quarterback Kai Jankow’s 22-yard touchdown run. After heading into the halftime break holding onto a 30-13 lead, both offenses really found their groove in the second half. The two teams combined for 62 second-half points.

“Hats off to their coaching staff in that second half,” Babylon head coach Rick Punzone said. “Their quarterback played phenomenal and was right on all night and our secondary struggled to figure him out.”

While Babylon did not play well on the defensive side, the offense picked up the slack led by four rushing touchdowns for Jankow. “The offensive line did such a great job for us,” said Jankow, lauding the efforts of the front five consisting of Gavin McDonald, Michael Bender, Lorenzo DiNapoli, Savion Milner and Toprak Oziel. “They gave me the holes and room I needed to be able to run all over the field.”

The same goes for running back Aidan Winter, who ran for 284 yards and two touchdowns. “It is awesome to know that I can trust the guys around me when I have the ball in my hands,” Winter said. “We are a family who grinds together everyday to get better and I know I’m playing my best when I’m around them.”

Punzone also had such high praise for both Winter and Jankow. “Aidan is so explosive when he has the ball,” said Punzone when asked about his running back’s talent. “It’s nice to know that at any point, he has the ability to break a big run and take it to the house.”

At the quarterback position, Punzone has loved seeing Jankow step up. “He has been phenomenal on both sides of the ball,” he said. “As the quarterback, he allows me to use Winter in all different creative ways.”

Despite the 4-0 start to the season, Punzone knows there is still plenty of work to do with half the season still remaining. “We did not beat Miller Place by 50 points,” he said. “We can definitely build off of this game and try to improve, especially on defense, because you can’t win a championship if you play like that.”

Babylon’s schedule is not going to get any easier. Their final four games are against Greenport/Southhold/Mattituck this week, followed by Bayport-Blue Point, Center Moriches, and Shoreham-Wading River. Three of those teams all currently hold records of 3-1 or better.

This will be a good test run for the Panthers as they gear up for what they hope is a deep postseason run in November.