Despite loss, Seaford is proud of its season

One thing Seaford refused to lose Saturday at Stony Brook was its pride.

The Vikings no longer own the longest winning streak on Long Island. That streak was broken at 23 games by Glenn's 28-7 victory in the Long Island Class IV championship game.

But Justin Buckley and the rest of the Vikings still possess the memories of a 2010 season that was perfect before yesterday's game.

"It's a tremendous achievement for the team to get this far," said Buckley, the workhorse back who carried the ball 33 times for 111 yards and a touchdown. "You wish you could've won, but we had a great season."

Seaford won its fourth straight Nassau Conference IV title but lost in the LIC for the third time in those four tries.

"I'm not disappointed at all," Vikings coach Rob Perpall said. "I'm very happy to be associated with a great bunch of guys."

Buckley scored the game's first points when he barreled in from a yard out with 3:41 left in the second quarter. He did a lot of pounding between the tackles, with his longest rush of the game going for 7 yards.

"I think they were playing a 6-3 [defensive front] with nine in the box," Buckley said. "It's hard to run. We usually do still ground-and-pound, but today it just wasn't working."

That was partially a good thing for Seaford in the first half. It kept the ball away from Glenn's dynamic quarterback Ryan Rielly, who had 306 (250 rushing, 56 passing) of Glenn's 316 total yards. But down by two touchdowns most of the fourth quarter, the land-loving Vikings had to take to the air - to lackluster results.

Starting quarterback Joe Kirincic, who is recovering from a shoulder separation suffered six weeks ago, was sacked twice in three plays. The second, on third-and-11 from the Glenn 34, knocked him out of the game with 5:41 to play. He had completed 3 of 5 passes for 39 yards before the injury.

Chris Trotta, who played admirably in Kirincic's absence this season, was thrust into a fourth-and-17 situation after spending most of the evening freezing on the sideline. That pass fell incomplete, as did all but one of his seven passes - a 37-yarder to Dan Arena. He also threw an interception to Anton Swain.

"I knew we were down by a lot, so I just wanted to come in and give my team the best chance to win," Trotta said. "I was a little nervous."

Despite the loss, Buckley was upbeat.

"I had a great time with my teammates who I've been playing with since I'm 7 years old," he said. " You wish you could have won this, but it's all right."