Quest for Championship Begins for Sayville

The Sayville varsity football Golden Flashes began its quest for a fourth Long Island championship over the past seven years with a 34-21 win over the Huntington Blue Devils in the season opener Saturday at Sayville High School.

Junior All-County quarterback Steven Ferreira led the way for Sayville with four touchdown passes, two to junior James Rupp, who was playing in his first varsity game. 

"Steven did what Steven does. He manages the game. He's brilliant back there and he makes plays when we need plays," said Robert Hoss, Sayville's head football coach . 

"We just pulled together as a team. They [the receivers] made great catches. It was a great way to start off the season," said Ferreira. 

Sayville's defense proved to be tenacious, putting pressure on Huntington's junior quarterback Dan Plant throughout the game and containing All-County running back Calvin Bollar, despite having three players new to the linebacker position in junior Rob Newell, junior Matt Ali and senior Mike Matson.

The game began well for Huntington. Junior Jared Thorbourne intercepted a pass from Ferreira and Bollar scored on a touchdown run to give Huntington a 7-0 first quarter lead with the Blue Devils adding the extra point.

Then, Ferreira went to work, throwing his first touchdown pass of the day, a 14-yard strike to senior Josh Tordik. The extra point failed, however.

With Huntington leading 7-6 in the second quarter, Ferreira found senior Rich Millwater for a 13-yard touchdown pass on fourth down. The Golden Flashes added the extra point to take a 13-7 lead and would not look back.

On the ensuing kickoff, the ball hit a member of Blue Devils and was recovered by Sayville senior Matt Pesko. Sophomore running back John Haggart ran up the middle and broke away from the pack to give Sayville a 20-7 lead, after he kicked the extra point. 

At 6-feet tall and only a sophomore, Haggart brings both size and speed to the running back position. He is complimented well by the other half of Sayville's running back tandem, junior Tom Deickhoff, a compact running back who is able to find the holes with his quickness. The two backs ran hard for Sayville to help the Golden Flashes to control the ball for much of the game. 

"When John [Haggart] comes in, they think they are getting a big kid who's going to run them over. They're actually getting a kid who's really fast. He just takes the ball and goes," said Deickhoff of his teammate. 

"They ran hard. They ran smart. I thought they played real well," said Hoss said of his two running backs. 

Huntington would strike to pull to within five points of Sayville. Plant, who missed all of last season with an injury suffered playing lacrosse, threw a touchdown pass to tight end Ryan Mulligan. Huntington then added a two-point conversion.

Sayville, though, closed out the scoring in the first half when Ferreira found Rupp for a touchdown and then the Golden Flashes added a two-point conversion with 41 second left to take a 28-15 lead into halftime. 

In the second half, the two teams exchanged touchdowns. In the third quarter, Ferreira threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game, a 7-yard strike to Rupp.

"Whenever you get open, Steven [Ferreira] will find you. I got open a couple of times and Steven put it right on the money," said Rupp. 

Huntington answered in the fourth quarter when Plant and Mulligan hooked up for another touchdown, this time on a 63-yard pass. 

That would be the end of the scoring as Sayville came away with a 34-21 victory. 

"I think we had way too many penalties. I think the score was probably a little closer than it should have been," said Hoss. "Offensively, I think we did a great job. The defense did a tremendous job on the run. They [Huntington] are a run-oriented team. They had some passes that they beat us on. [But] defensively, I think we played real well."

Sayville will take on Eastport South Manor High School on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at Sayville High School.