Varsity football quarter final - Mepham vs Garden City
Drag the grey box around the watermarked image to the right to view a zoomed in version on the left.
Purchase Options:
Story:
GC CRUSHES MEPHAM IN PLAYOFF OPENER; PLAYS MACARTHUR AT HOFSTRA FRIDAY
by Jake White
The rain finally stopped. The winds died down. A relatively passive defense was on the other side of the ball. And the result of all this was that Garden City High's football team took to the air with great success to beat Mepham, 42-7, in the Conference II Quarterfinals at Warren King Field last Friday afternoon.
Senior quarterback Dean Gibbons gladly accepted the responsibility and completed 6 of 10 passes for 146 yards and two touchdowns. "Is that all we had?" said offensive coordinator Tom Casey. "It seemed like more."
It certainly could have been more. Dean was right on target all day. In the first half he hit on 5 of 9 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown. Two other potential TD's were dropped or narrowly broken up. On the first series of the second half he connected on a beautiful 52 yard scoring strike to Francis McDonough, the 6'3" wide receiver's second of the game. At that point with the score 35-7, Coach Tom Flatley called off the dogs and ended the air attack. For the remainder of the two periods the Trojans ran the ball with their reserve backs getting most of the work. Will Fuller (7 carries, 52 yards) and Will Manning (5 carries, 28 yards, and 1 touchdown) capitalized on the opportunity.
But, more about Gibbons who has quietly had a terrific season. His 12 touchdown passes place him near the top in Nassau County. He has thrown just 63 passes, completing 39 for 605 yards. That is a very good 62 percent. In addition, his 77 rushing yards against Mepham moved him into the leading rusher role on the team with 398 yards.
Junior Dan Savage enjoyed his best game, rushing for 66 yards on 7 carries and scoring two touchdowns on runs of 1 and 30 yards. As a team Garden City rushed for 292 yards and had a season best 438 total yards.
The win, coupled with Elmont's 9-7 triumph over Carey, shook up the Conference II playoff picture. The four remaining teams were re-seeded and Lawrence (7-1), which was placed first in power points thanks to some creative accounting, now will play sixth-seeded Elmont (6-2) at Hofstra' Shuart Stadium on Friday at 4 p.m. In the second game of the doubleheader Garden City (7-1) will meet MacArthur (6-2) at 7:30 p.m. Lawrence held on to beat Bellmore Kennedy, 14-7, in the quarterfinals and MacArthur edged South Side, 6-0. Elmont surprised most observers by beating highly-regarded Carey, 9-7. Even though the Spartans had knocked off Carey in the season opener, they weren't picked to do it again. It was a bitter ending for Carey (5-3) which handed Garden City its only loss, 21-19 in overtime 2 the first time the Seahawks had ever beaten the Trojans.
Before GC supporters get overconfident about drawing MacArthur instead of Elmont or Carey, keep in mind that Garden City beat MacArthur, 7-6, on October 7. In that game the Trojans were outgained 184-158 and could have lost in the fourth period had the Generals succeeded on a two-point conversion attempt. MacArthur's defense is top-rate and although they haven't scored many points, they do eat up possession time on the strength of the running and passing of quarterback Kevin Ryan.
EXTRA POINTS: GC holds a 22-2 lead all-time against Mepham....The Pirates fine junior halfback Cory Jones returned a kickoff 81 yards for a TD on the final play of the first half. Gibbons had run an excellent two minute drill culminating with a 31 yard touchdown pass to McDonough with 14 seconds left.....Dillon Dwyer was 6 for 6 on extra points. He is 23 for 26 this year.....Terry Kennedy continues to make big plays. He had three catches for 52 yards and an interception...The win was Garden City High's 400th since 1933. The Trojans (400-195-30) are the fourth Nassau team to reach 400 following Hempstead, Freeport and Lawrence....The JV won two games last week, blanking Elmont, 28-0, and outscoring Mepham, 39-22. Congratulations to new head coach Seth Messier and his assistants Bob Nolan and Matt McFarland for a perfect 8-0 season which extended the JV's winning streak to 40 straight games....A highlight of the JV game was Peter Licitra attempting a drop kick for an extra point. He missed, but it may have been the first attempt of its kind since the 1940's.... Mepham Pirates 2006 Varsity Football Roster Frank Barrios, Dirk Nova, Frank Carbone, Nick Begonja, Anthony Correale, Cory Jones, Nick Guglieimo, Anthony Caponi, Anthony Jimenez, Patrick McCauley, Matt Lindgren, Vincent Lemma, Frank Frigenti, Daniel Castellanos, Vinny Franco, Glenn Greubel, Brandon Fowler, Daniel Ortiz, Marlon DeRosena, Gregory Famiglietti, Michael LoGatto, Kevin Collins, Chris Preattle, Kevin Mitchell, Justin Angell, Joseph Vinciguerra, AJ Kollar, Quan Ngo, Anthony Dinuzzo, Maichael Litzner, Dan Sechiano, Michael Russo, Jeremy Naylor, Emmanuel Fineus, Anthony Nunez Head Coach Tom Piccirillo, Asst coaches Coscia, Mazeika........Garden City 2006 Varsity Football Roster: Dillon Dwyer, Dean Gibbons, Hayden Fries, Brendan Carroll, Terrance Kennedy, Tim Harder, Ryan Lynch, Joe Alleva, Will Manning, Greg Meli, Steve Hucke, Kyle Walsh, Kevin Rose, Will Fuller, Dan Savage, Billy Fell, Robert Stufano, Tyler Pewarski, Brian O'Mara, Declan fee, Tim MArtin, Blaise Ancona, Spencer DeSena, Thomas Mahoney, Ryan Marrinan, Peter Costello, Mark Pando, Bobby Niebler, Jeff Fell, Joe Mohen, Drew Sweeney, Stephen Paladino, Joe Calcaterra, Robert Fargnoli, Gavin Crisafulli, Ryan Dowling, Francis McDonough, Pat Reeves, Kyle Bolson, Brian tempesta, Ken Wright, Ryan Sweeney, Michael Mancusi Head Coach Tom Flatley Assts Baccarella, Casey, Ettinger, Finnell
