Huntington JV Football Wins Wild One
The Huntington junior varsity football team seemed well on its way to a victory last Saturday afternoon, scoring a pair of first quarter touchdowns against visiting Eastport-South Manor and looking nearly invincible in the process. Then the Sharks bounced back and made a game of it, throwing the outcome into doubt until the final minute.
"We started out great," said Ron Wilson, who coaches the Blue Devils along with Todd Jamison. Huntington took possession of the ball on its own 38-yard line and capped off a nine play 62-yard drive with running back Tyler Greenhill's two-yard touchdown run to take an 8-0 lead.
After the Blue Devil defense forced the Sharks to punt on the next series, Huntington quarterback Ben Kocis (7-for-11, 78 yards) fired a 28-yard dart to Kiernan McGovern for a big first down near the end zone. The drive would soon enough produce another touchdown and give the home team a 16-0 advantage. It was that kind of day for Big Blue, which totaled 346 yards of total offense.
While the Huntington sideline might have thought a blow-out was in the works, ESM (3-3) quickly regrouped as the Sharks' defense clamped down on the Blue Devils. The visitors capitalized on broken coverage to score their first touchdown of the game and went on a long drive to score again, closing ESM's deficit to four points at 16-12.
Huntington struck back with less than three minutes remaining in the half when Kocis called his own quarterback sneak and scampered into the end zone to give Huntington a 24-12 lead.
The two teams exchanged third quarter touchdowns as the Blue Devils suffered from some broken coverage problems again and also coughed up the ball on the Sharks' 20-yard line. Leading 30-18, many on the Huntington side of the field probably thought the game was just about over, but ESM took the air to gobble up big chunks of yardage and score yet again to close to within 30-26 with 1:56 left in the game.
All of a sudden, just about everyone in the crowd of 300 was standing and on edge. The Sharks tried an onside kick but it was caught by Huntington's Jacob Watkins, who took off running, only to be brought down by his own teammates, John Mallouk and Troy Greene who were worried that ESM might try to knock the ball loose.
Greenhill, who rushed 37 times for a staggering 222 yards, locked up Huntington's fifth victory in six games when he scored his fourth touchdown of the day on a 40-yard run to give the relieved Blue Devil team a 36-26 win.
Blue Devil Notes: Mallouk rushed for 46 yards on six carries . . . The Blue Devil ground game covered 268 yards on 49 carries . . . Greene had three receptions for 27 yards . . . Mallouk was named "Game MVP" by the coaches . . . Mallouk contributed 10 solo tackles, including one for a loss . . . McGovern had five solo tackles . . . Greene made six solo tackles, including one for a loss.