Curry scores twice in East Meadow's victory
East Meadow High School quarterback #12 Dylan Curry scrambles for a first down in the fourth quarter of a Nassau County Conference I varsity football game. (Oct. 15, 2011) Credit: James Escher
Billy Andrle was the phantom menace for East Meadow. Because when the Jets run the triple-option, the strategy that resulted in two scores Saturday, it's the fullback Andrle, cradling a ball that isn't there, who pulls the defensive ends toward his stumbling form.
It fooled Baldwin yesterday, and even a referee. He blew his whistle after Andrle went down, but before quarterback Dylan Curry, that very tangible threat, waltzed into the end zone untouched, as East Meadow defeated the visiting Bruins, 20-7 in Nassau I.
Curry's second rushing touchdown -- the one-yard score so deceptive it deked the official -- provided the final margin with 8:51 left in the third. His 4-yard TD on a similar play, using Andrle and a motion pitch back as live bait, gave the Jets (6-0) the 12-7 lead with 2:59 left in the first half.
"It's a read play," said Curry, who finished with 80 yards on 13 carries and went 2-for-5 for 54 yards and a touchdown. "We were struggling a little bit, and I knew someone had to come up big."
Indeed, if there is a key to East Meadow's undefeated season, it probably lies in the Jets' ability to combine finesse with force -- Curry's smooth execution, seen in his two scoring runs, and running back Robbie Healy's explosive strength.
Healy had 19 carries for 153 yards, but was held without a score for the first time this year He has 16 on the season.
"You want to know how good Robbie Healy is?" said East Meadow coach Vinny Mascia. "I actually walked off the field saying, 'Wow, Robbie didn't have a good game.' And then [I hear] that number, [of 153 yards]. And that tells me what type of player he is. They were doing everything they could to stop him."
Despite the victory, it was an atypically quiet afternoon for the Jets offense, which came into the game scoring no fewer than 41 points all year. The Bruins (4-2), led by Jovaun Tomlinson (12 carries, 86 yards), took a 7-6 lead on Pat Dillon's 9-yard pass to Derick Darnulc with 5:46 left in the first half.
East Meadow managed only 37 yards of offense before a two-play scoring drive ending in Curry's 24-yard pass over the middle to the wide open Matt Castaneda with 10:24 left in the second quarter.
"[Baldwin] came here prepared," Mascia said. "They watched the film on us. They did some really good things."
The Jets defenders, behind inside linebacker John Posillico (13 tackles), did some good things. They neutralized the Bruins after their score -- forcing them to go three-and-out in their last possession of the first half and holding them to 15 yards in the third. East Meadow held the ball for the first eight minutes of the fourth, putting the scrambling Dillon into a time crunch. He was forced to go airborne in the final possession, going 4-for-10. He finished 7-for-17 with 57 yards.
"With our system, it's about staying the course," Mascia said. "You know what you want to do. We're not going to try to trick anyone."
Most of the time, that is.
