Faison, Booker lead Longwood over Bay Shore
Longwood RB Davonte Booker #12, heads up the sideline for a TD against Bay Shore. (Nov. 4, 2011) Credit: George A. Faella
First, he took a pitch. Then he threw a pitch. Both times, Longwood sophomore Chris Faison delivered a home run.
Faison ran 77 yards with a pitchout for a touchdown and connected with Dave Bennett on a halfback option pass for a 65-yard scoring play as host No. 2 Longwood defeated No. 7 Bay Shore, 28-7, Friday night in a Suffolk I football playoff game.
Faison's long run came on the first play of the fourth quarter, shortly after Bay Shore had crept to within 14-7 on Matthias Eato's 22-yard run. Faison took a pitchout, turned the right corner and went the distance. "That play was a little bit of anger," he said. "I didn't get as many carries as I thought I would in the first half and I didn't do much. I was determined. Once I got a shot, I took it."
Bay Shore (4-5) then drove into Longwood territory, but Anthony Martucci's interception at the Lions' 27 ended the Marauders' last serious scoring bid. Two plays later, Faison struck again. This time, he took a pitch, started around right end, smartly selling the run before pulling up for a well-thrown pass. "I was watching the corner all the way," he said. "Once he came to me, I let it fly. I gave [Bennett] a good ball and he ran under it."
That bit of trickery put the game away for Longwood (8-1), which was stout on defense all night. As usual, defensive lineman Darius Greene led the way. He made one crowd-pleasing sack of Lucas Rock when he shot straight through the middle to emphatically dump the quarterback for an 11-yard loss late in the first half that took the Marauders out of scoring range.
Longwood led 7-0 on Davonte Booker's 51-yard run. Booker also scored on a 7-yard run in the third quarter and was the focal point of the offense, with 27 carries for 198 yards. Booker did most of his damage running behind 310-pound, Syracuse-bound tackle Omari Palmer. "This was the perfect kind of game for us," Palmer said. "They're big, but we dominated up front."
They had just the right pitch.
