Blue Devil JV Football Shows Guts
Just how good this year’s Huntington junior varsity football team really is remains to be seen. But, if the opening game was any indication, the Blue Devils do have a large amount of guts.
“Our team is mostly made up of ninth graders, however, that didn't infringe upon our game plan,” popular coach Ron Wilson said about the team’s script against visiting Islip. Wilson’s coaching colleague, Todd Jamison, was determined to send his offensive unit right at the Buccaneers and he did just that.
Defensively the coaches were concerned with Islip’s speed option play from the shotgun offense. “It took a quarter for our boys to get out the first game jitters,” Wilson said. The Bucs scored first, late in the opening frame. Huntington answered in the second quarter when sophomore quarterback Conor Reilly scrambled down the field 43 yards. With their place-kicker Taroy Hamilton unavailable to kick, the coaches decided to “go for two” on the extra point, but a penalty temporarily derailed that effort. Then Reilly fired a seven yard strike to sophomore Jared Thorbourne and the Blue Devils had an 8-6 lead.
Huntington’s offense struggled to remember some of its plays in the second half. However, the defense picked up any slack, dominating play and forcing several turnovers. Midway through the third quarter the Bucs scored on a trap play up the middle. They went for two and converted it when a Blue Devil cornerback tipped the ball and it fell right in the hands of the Islip receiver to put Huntington at a 14-8 disadvantage.
A couple of series later, Blue Devil defensive end Joe Straub was able to penetrate the Islip backfield and block a punt, giving Huntington excellent field position. The next play saw Reilly connect with Thorbourne again, this time for a 13 yard touchdown, to knot the score at 14-14.
The Bucs controlled the ball for most of the fourth quarter. “For some reason, we couldn't stop the inside run,” Wilson said. “We were substituting our big inside tackles in and out of the game so we can keep them fresh, but that really didn't help us much.”
Huntington was able to stop its opponent on fourth-and-two with about seven minutes remaining and took possession of the ball on its own 47-yard line. Jamison then went to work calling a set of sharp plays and with the shifty moving of Reilly and his corps of receivers, the Blue Devils put together a drive that culminated with Reilly’s five-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion failed, but Huntington had a 20-14 lead. Unfortunately, Islip immediately responded and tied the game.
With less than two minutes remaining, the Bucs drove deep in Blue Devil territory, converting on several fourth-and-one situations. “This made us a bit nervous,” Wilson said. “We knew they were going to go to their air attack so we went into our prevent defense by bringing in another safety and taking out a linemen.”
Islip threw a fade pass down its own sideline and the ball seemed to hang in the air forever, but when it came down, Thorbourne caught it for an interception. “We were glad for that,” Wilson said. Huntington had time for just one play and elected to throw a long pass downfield that fell incomplete. Game over. Score tied: 20-20.
“We were pleased with the way our boys played the game,” Wilson said. “They didn't give up. When things went wrong, and they went wrong more than once, we didn't cave in. We continued to help each other get through.
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