Bartlet run with :00 left lifts Riverhead

Zero.

That's what Riverhead running back Charles Bartlet admitted he thought his teams chances for winning in the closing seconds were Saturday against Half Hollow Hills West.

"I didn't think there was enough time to get a play off," Bartlet said.

Zero.

That's how much time several Hills West players thought were left as the Blue Waves hurried and scurried to the line of scrimmage with the clock ticking down and the ball on the Colts' 5.

"They were jumping around yelling, 'We won. We won,' " Bartlet related.

Zero.

SEE PHOTOSRiverhead 43, Hills West 42

That's the official time recorded for Bartlet's dramatic 5-yard scoring run on the game's last play as an overflow homecoming crowd at Riverhead's McKillop Field went berserk after the Blue Wave drove 67 yards in 1:11 to win the Suffolk II game, 43-42, with a frantic, frenzied final sequence.

Devante McFarlane had scored his fourth touchdown of the game (he also threw for two more, scored a two-point conversion, blocked a punt, ran for 97 yards and passed for 282) on a 6-yard run to put the Colts (2-1) ahead 42-37.

"Anyone can see he's the real deal," said Leif Shay, coach of Riverhead, now 3-0. "He was the best athlete on the field. He'll do a great job at Syracuse.

"But after he scored, I told our guys, 'They left too much time on the clock.' And they believed me. I'm proud of these guys -- not because they won the game but because they never quit."

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Riverhead quarterback Ryan Bitzer, a fast-maturing junior, was deadly accurate all afternoon, even though he was sacked six times by an aggressive but sometimes overpursuing Hills West defense. He completed 20 of 29 passes for 296 yards and came up big on the final drive.

He completed five of seven passes for 68 yards, including a 20-yard screen and a 33-yard deep sideline pass to Reginald Moore (five catches, 153 yards). A sideline pass to Quinn Funn (seven catches, 109 yards) gave Riverhead first-and-goal at the 9 with about 30 seconds left. After two short runs by Bartlet and the Blue Waves' final timeout, Bitzer hit Mike Hinchy on a slant, but he was gang-tackled at the 5.

That's when Bitzer started hearing voices. Literally. "I heard some guys yelling 'spike it, spike it.' But I knew it was fourth down and the game would be over," Bitzer said.

"He's a heads-up kid. A smart player," said Shay, who usually shouts in every play from the sideline. "I was calling 'Hawk' [a pass]. He called 'Laker' [a run]. I'll tell him great call. If it didn't work, I'd yell at him."

Bitzer said he had to first calm down his players. "I was yelling at the linemen to get ready," Bitzer said. "I called a running play because it was the quickest play to get off. I think I made the handoff with less than a second left. I watched him [Bartlet] all the way."

Bartlet said when the Blue Waves got the ball back with 1:11 left, "I was so confident. Our offense is so explosive I don't think any team can stop us."

Certainly, Hills West couldn't, especially at the end. "I probably was the only one who knew what play Ryan called," Bartlet said. "I knew there was no time to get a play in from the sidelines. I was supposed to go off right tackle, but I ran left because those guys weren't ready."

Bitzer and Bartlet agreed on the number of games they'd played in their entire lives that ended this way.

Zero.