Appell, West help Locust Valley past Seaford
Locust Valley celebrates a 13-12 victory over Seaford. (Sept. 24, 2011) Credit: Andrew J. Hyatt
Before every kickoff, Locust Valley takes the field down by three. That's because the football program has a saying: Three bad things are going to happen.
"No matter what you do, how well you play, three bad things always happen," first year Locust Valley coach Matt McFarland said. "It's how you respond after that."
Two first-half Seaford touchdowns qualified as two bad things.
But after being held scoreless in the first half, Locust Valley scored 13 unanswered points for a 13-12 win Saturday over Seaford in Nassau IV.
Seaford is 1-2, losing its past two games after entering the season with a 43-game Nassau winning streak. Host Locust Valley improves to 3-0.
"I thought we were going to get the best they had to offer," McFarland said. "They're such a great program. They have such pride. We knew they were going to come out firing."
After a defensive battle most of the first half, Seaford broke through for a touchdown with 4 minutes, 46 seconds remaining before halftime. Despite running the ball on 27 of its first 28 plays, Seaford opted to pass on first-and-10 from the Locust Valley 26-yard line and Chris Trotta found Kyle Kolodinsky in the back right corner of the end zone for a touchdown. A two-point conversion pass fell incomplete.
Three plays later, Seaford's Brian Gilbert intercepted Joe Jacobi, setting up Joe Richard's 3-yard touchdown run 26.7 seconds before the half.
A two-point conversion run failed giving Seaford a 12-0 lead, but the Vikings didn't go into the break unscathed.
During Seaford's second touchdown drive, Trotta was hit while releasing a pass and he immediately came off the field. He didn't return and coach Rob Perpall was told Trotta was done for the season with an undisclosed injury to his right throwing arm.
Meanwhile, with two bad things behind them, Locust Valley was ready for a new game. "I knew we were going to come out with more fire and more power," the Falcons' Alex Rawa said. "We were going to take this game."
Locust Valley scored on the opening drive of the third quarter. Chris Appell ran 22 yards up the middle for a touchdown with 8:28 remaining in the quarter. The kick failed, leaving the Falcons with a 12-6 deficit. But "The second half is called 'Falcon Half' here at Locust Valley," Nick West said.
The Falcon's offense took over again late in the third quarter on its own 20 and engineered a 10-play 80 yard drive that bled into the fourth quarter and culminated in West's 2-yard touchdown run with 10:09 remaining.
"The second half I came out and felt my legs were fresh," West said. "I said, 'Give me a workload. I'll move the ball.' "
That run tied the score but it wasn't until Bradley Conn's kick cleared the uprights that the home crowd went wild.
From there it was all defense.
Seaford drove inside Locust Valley's 36 three times in the waning minutes, but the Falcons held strong each time. Locust Valley hoped to recover one fumble, but the runner was ruled down (the third bad thing). Then Kevin Rieger did recover a fumble, Rawa intercepted one pass and batted down two others.
"They were inside our 30-yard line for most of the fourth quarter, and the defense stopped them," West said. "That win is on them."
