Wantagh football reaches into its bag of tricks to return to winning ways
Luke Martini of Wantagh celebrates his touchdown during a Nassau Conference III football game against Bethpage on Friday. Credit: Dawn McCormick
There were eight seconds left on the clock until halftime. Wantagh was up by 15 and was ready to try to make it an 18-point spread, lining up Brendon Wood for a 36-yard field-goal attempt — or so it seemed.
Because it was a fake. Luke Martini threw it up for Michael Amodio in the back middle of the end zone — 18-yard touchdown with no time left. Then Wood got to the kick, booting the extra point for a 22-point advantage against undefeated Bethpage.
“It’s always a good call when it works out,” Wantagh coach Keith Sachs said with a smile.
Wantagh was in need of a good night on its field. This esteemed football program, now residing in Nassau III after winning the Long Island Class IV title last year, had hit speed bumps the previous two weeks, falling to Clarke and South Side after winning its first three.
But just about everything went right Friday night for the offense, for the defense and for the special teams. Wantagh responded with an impressive 35-12 victory to move to 4-2.
“We weren’t holding back today,” Sachs said. “… A regular-season game to us is never important, but this year, with where we were heading, this game was important to us. It had nothing to do with beating Bethpage. It had to do with getting ourselves back on track.”
Martini ran 14 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns to go with his TD pass. And Joe Nicholson ran for a score and returned an interception for one.
“It definitely hurt losing those two games, but we knew we had to bounce back,” Martini said. “We knew we had it in us.”
It was certainly a disappointing night for the Golden Eagles, who were trying to go to 6-0 for the first time since 2011.
“We offensively didn’t play our best game,” coach Pete Zito said. “… And defensively, we just didn’t play well. We just couldn’t tackle.”
After Bethpage turned the ball over on downs at the Wantagh 22 on the opening drive, Wantagh went 78 yards. Martini took a handoff and tried the left side, carrying for a 23-yard TD.
Chase Solliday, who ran 20 times for 134 yards and two touchdowns, countered with a 1-yard scoring burst for Bethpage. But the PAT kick was blocked, leaving it at 7-6 with 3:01 gone in the second quarter.
And then Wantagh took off. The ensuing drive ended with Martini taking a pitch to the left and running 18 yards to the end zone.
Four Bethpage plays later, Wantagh was back in the end zone. Michael Mastrangelo fired short and right and Nicholson intercepted it and raced for a 27-yard pick-6.
Then came the fake field goal turned touchdown. So it was 28-6.
“It was a bad day to have a bad day,” Zito said.
Solliday rushed for a 3-yard TD in the fourth quarter, but Nicholson ran the ball in from the 8 to cap the next drive.
“It was a great bounce-back win, especially by the score,” Nicholson said. “I mean, only up from here.”
Next up for Wantagh? A stiff test next Saturday at Carey.
“It looks like Carey and everyone else right now,” Sachs said. “… We respect Carey. They’re a great program. We just want to be in a good game.”
