Luke Garguilo, Massapequa topple Farmingdale in clash of Nassau Conference I rivals

The hype was flowing for this big football rivalry game — undefeated Massapequa at undefeated Farmingdale Saturday in a rematch of the thrilling 2024 Nassau I championship clash that Massapequa won by one in overtime.

This time, though, it wasn’t close.

Massapequa dominated the Dalers throughout in a 28-3 win.

“All three phases — the kids came to play,” Massapequa coach Kevin Shippos said. “Offense, defense, special teams just played lights out. As a coach, as a season goes on, you hope that the team improves from week to week, and I’ve seen that in this group.”

The two-time defending Long Island Class I champ moved to 6-0 and left Farmingdale at 5-1.

“I feel like the Oceanside game opened our eyes to how good we can be and how to play with adversity,” Shippos said of the 36-33 comeback win in Week 4, “and they’ve gotten better the last two weeks.”

Junior QB Luke Garguilo ran 10 times for 114 yards and two scores and went 6-for-8 for 105 yards. Senior running back Andrew Pedalino rushed 12 times for 81 yards and two scores.

“This is one of the biggest rivalries on Long Island,” Pedalino said. “Ever since football has been a thing, since we were young, too, it’s always Massapequa and Farmingdale.”

So was Garguilo surprised that this thing wasn’t closer?

“I was,” he said, “but give a lot of credit to our defense for stopping them.”

The defense did a good job swarming Josh Kama. The dangerous Dalers running back, who rushed for a Long Island-record 495 yards against Oceanside in Week 2, totaled 101 yards on 17 carries.

“He’s obviously a great player,” said Massapequa junior linebacker Nolan Wieczorek, who had a sack along the way. “You’ve got to give credit to him. But it’s 11 really vs. one. They have one good player; we’ve got 11. We play (with) toughness.”

Kama suffered a shoulder injury in the previous game against Hempstead.

“In the next couple of weeks, it should get better, obviously,” Dalers coach Buddy Krumenacker said.

Asked if it hampered Kama, Krumenacker said, “I don’t think so. I think what hampered him was us getting outplayed.”

Garguilo capped Massapequa’s first drive with a 6-yard TD run. JJ Damo countered with a 25-yard field goal in the second quarter.

But Garguilo opened the ensuing drive with a 48-yard run to the 13. That led to Pedalino’s 2-yard touchdown run.

Pedalino then scored from the 1 with 43.3 seconds left in the half. It was 21-3 at the intermission.

Garguilo took the ball on a 26-yard TD run in the fourth.

“This is a big accomplishment for us, but it’s just a regular-season game,” Pedalino said. “We’ve got bigger things ahead of us.”