MacArthur blanks East Meadow

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Holding a 12-point lead late in the fourth quarter at East Meadow last Saturday and faced with a fourth-and-1 from its own 22, MacArthur head coach Bobby Fehrenbach didn’t think twice about leaving his offense on the field.

The Generals, who moved the chains and controlled the clock all day with its stout offensive line and the backfield combination of seniors Hugh Kelleher and Ryan Isom, converted easily on senior quarterback Joe Manfredo’s run up the middle. Two plays later, Isom sealed a 19-0 victory in the Conference II football showdown with his third touchdown, a 58-yard dash with 3:06 remaining.

“Up 12-0 isn’t entirely comfortable and we have trust in our defense in case we don’t make it,” Fehrenbach said of the gutsy call. “If we punt, they’re probably getting a short field to work with anyway. So we decided to take a gamble and it paid off.”

Kelleher (172 yards on 29 carries) and Isom (160, 14) proved safe bets throughout the afternoon as MacArthur improved to 2-0. Senior left tackle Sean Tierney and juniors Greg Milau, Andrew Calderon, Steven Kelly and Matt Cacace paved the way up front.

“They did a nice job and kept the ball away from us,” East Meadow coach Doug Bange said. “We only had 35 offensive plays and it’s hard to win when that happens. We had almost half of that last week in our first drive when we beat Manhasset.”

The Jets (1-1) were missing one of their key offensive pieces, senior running back Chris Barry, due to a high ankle sprain, and lost his replacement, junior Joe Giambald, to an injury in the first quarter. They managed 38 yards on the game’s opening drive, including a 16-yard catch by Giambald, but were held to under triple digits for the day.

The Generals marched 83 yards on their first possession and took a 6-0 lead with 2:23 left in the opening quarter on Isom’s 6-yard run. Kelleher had four carries of at least 10 yards on the drive, and Manfredo connected with senior Dan Calderon for 16 yards to set up the score.

After MacArthur’s defense forced the first of four straight three-and-outs for East Meadow, Isom raced 39 yards for a touchdown on the first snap of the second quarter to make it 12-0. “Ryan’s quick and waits for his blocks really well,” Fehrenbach said of Isom. “Defenses can’t afford to fall asleep on that kid,” he added. “When 25 [Kelleher] is out of the game, we’ve got 26 [Isom] to go to.”

Kelleher took nine consecutive handoffs to open the second half, and although the Jets’ defense held firm in the red zone, their offense was limited to 1:20 of possession time in the third quarter. Midway through the fourth, Manfredo picked off counterpart Jaheim Perry at the Generals’ 13-yard line to end East Meadow’s biggest threat.

The Jets, who opened the season with a 28-6 win at Manhasset, will try to get back on track at Kennedy this Saturday at 2 p.m. MacArthur hosts Valley Stream Central on Friday at 7 p.m.