Carey wins Rutgers Cup award for second straight season
The Carey football team celebrate their victory over East Islip after the Class II Long Island Championship on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014 at Stony Brook University. Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
The magic number for Carey is two.
Two consecutive Nassau II championships.
Two consecutive Long Island Class II championships.
Two consecutive unbeaten seasons.
And now, make it two consecutive Rutgers Cups for the Seahawks, who again were voted the most outstanding football team in Nassau County for 2014 at Wednesday night's annual Nassau County Football Coaches Association dinner in Woodbury.
Carey received 139 points, including 38 first-place votes, from the coaches. (A vote for first is worth three points, second is worth two and third is one.) Lawrence, the Long Island Class III champion, finished second with 101 points. Syosset, the Long Island Class I champ, was third with 51 points and Roosevelt, the Conference IV winner, received 15 votes.
The Seahawks have conjured up another magic number -- they own the longest current winning streak on Long Island at 24. "We never talked about 24 or about a Long Island championship," Carey coach Mike Stanley said. "We just talked about getting better."
They were good from the start, beating Mepham in the season opener, 33-6, and going on to score more than 40 points eight times. Their closest contest was a 21-6 victory over rival Garden City in the county championship game.
In the Long Island Championships, Carey put on a clinic during its 41-7 win against East Islip. The offense amassed 299 yards, the defense surrendered only 13 yards rushing and the special teams scored two touchdowns.
"This feels every bit as good as it did last year," Stanley said during the postgame celebration at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium.
For the season, the offense, led by first-year starting quarterback Mike Catanese and returning backs Conor Colasurdo, Mike DeLeo and Nick Spillane, averaged 40.8 points per game. The defense, led by linebacker Colasurdo and a rugged line featuring Thomas Gallant and Jorge Cerquera, allowed only 9.4 points per game.
"This was an unbelievable group of special players," Stanley said.
You could say they made some magic.
