Blue Devils Win Again to Remain Perfect
Quarterback Brian Ruggiero ran for 118 yards on a dozen carries and completed five passes for 42 yards to help the Huntington football team upend Eastport-South Manor last Saturday afternoon, 17-6. It was the team’s second straight victory without a loss.
New head coach Ron Wilson is understandably not a fan of mistakes, so after the Blue Devils fumbled seven times in the season opener at East Hampton (losing possession on four occasions) he vowed to reduce the number of turnovers and Huntington did just that, coughing up the ball only once against ESM (0-2) and playing a well-disciplined game.
“Eastport matched up very well with our team speed,” Wilson said. “They were able to slow our offense down because of that.” But, while the offense sometimes struggled, the Blue Devil defense repeatedly came up with big plays.
But, a team can’t win by just playing defense; it needs to put points on the scoreboard and Huntington found a way to do it. “It was our kicking game combined with the athletic talents of Brian Ruggiero that became the difference in the game,” Wilson said.
Kicker Chris Sandoval’s debut proved to be a raging success, as his 28-yard field goal gave the team an early 3-0 lead. He later converted a pair of extra points and also recorded several punts of more than 50 yards, pinning the Sharks close to their goal line. “Officials were even in awe as they saw Sandoval kick the ball as if it was his own worst enemy,” Wilson said.
Huntington led 10-6 late in the fourth quarter when it mounted a 12-play, 63-yard drive which saw Ruggiero carry the ball six times for 52 yards along the way. Finally, Lonnie James burst through the line for a five-yard touchdown run to put the game on ice with less than two minutes remaining.
Wilson was especially pleased with his player’s second half effort. “We're not a team to drop our heads when something goes wrong,” the coach said. “We rally behind one another and keep going forward with our game plan. Another one of our goals is to avoid repeating the same mistake twice. We strongly believe: ‘Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.’”
Huntington hosts Hauppauge (2-0) this Saturday (Sept. 27) in the annual homecoming day game. Kick-off is set for 1:30 p.m. Admission is free. “They're big and well coached,” Wilson said. “We will rely on our team speed, fix a couple of blocking assignments that went wrong, and continue to focus on our overall team effort. Our goal is to win one game at a time and in order to do that we have to help each other and practice hard during the week to make each other better.”
Blue Devil Notes: Dasheem Hooks rushed three times for 15 yards . . . Brian Smith carried seven times for 20 yards and had one reception for another five yards . . . Whitney record three tackles for a loss . . . Joe Brown had four tackles and a sack . . . Ruggiero connected on five-of-eleven passes . . . He was picked off twice . . . Running back Calvin Bollar had another solid game, hauling in three passes for 28 yards and rushing 15 times for 48 yards . . . Huntington’s defense came up big, time after time, as Sean Whitney and Ricardo Caballero each recorded six tackles, respectively while Peter Knutson and Cody Kirlew added five tackles apiece . . . Josh Daves had one reception for nine yards . . . Ruggiero, Cabellero and Tom Grossman all intercepted passes.
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