Centereach football shakes off early trick play to down Newfield

The Centereach football team expected Newfield to reach into its bag of tricks to try to surprise its intradistrict rival, just not that early.

On the second play of the opening drive, Newfield quarterback Sean Sullivan lateraled the ball to wide receiver Branden McDaniels on the left flank. As the Centereach defense swarmed toward McDaniels, he leaned back and launched the ball downfield to Kenny Petit Frere, who caught the pass and ran it in for for a 73-yard score.

But the Centereach defense would not get fooled again. The Cougars recorded three interceptions and held the Wolverines scoreless the rest of the way to record a 32-7 victory over host Newfield in a Suffolk II matchup on Saturday.

“We knew they were going to run trick plays,” wide receiver/linebacker LaRawn Robinson said. “We happened to bite on that one. It shocked us. We were not expecting them to do that on the second play. We just played our game and from there, there was no fooling us.”

An interception by Elijah Adams on Newfield’s next possession set up the Cougars’ first scoring drive. Wide receiver Jason Zaita bolted up the middle for a three-yard run, and Robinson, who recorded three of Centereach’s seven sacks, scored on a two-point conversion run to put Centereach up 8-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Centereach (2-3) tightened its coverage  on Petit Frere and applied pressure to quarterbacks Sullivan and Matthew Evers, forcing them to flee the pocket and hurry throws. The loss drops Newfield to 1-4.

“We knew they were going to put the ball in the air, so we made sure we stayed deep and had guys there to make plays,” Centereach coach Adam Barrett said.

A downed ball in the end zone by Sullivan gave Centereach a safety early in the second quarter. Quarterback TJ Doyle II, who completed three of six passes for 68 yards, connected on an explosive 50-yard strike to Robinson, which keyed a 3-play, 73-yard march that was capped by a Doyle sneak as the Cougars jumped to a 16-7 halftime lead.

“We knew the corners were biting down so we knew we had that open and it was a great ball by TJ,” Robinson said. “It was a great play that really got us rolling. We were playing as one. That’s all you could ask for.”

Robinson added his own 12-yard touchdown pass to Zaita and completed the two-point conversion run with 4:46 remaining in the third quarter. Two minutes later, running back Anthony Prince scored on a 10-yard run and ran in the extra points.

“This gives us a lot of momentum for next week against North Babylon,” Zaita said. “They run the ball a lot but we’re going to do our homework to contain them, just like we did today.”