Gianfranco Soriente goes for 211 yards, 3 TDs, in Plainedge win
Plainedge running back Gianfranco Soriente, left, gets congratulated by teammate Ryan Bauer after rushing for his third touchdown. (Sept. 29, 2012) Credit: James Escher
Leading Hewlett by seven points at the half, Plainedge turned to its rock at running back, Gianfranco Soriente, to put the game out of reach.
Following a Hewlett punt to open the third quarter, Soriente powered through the defense to close an 86-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run, giving Plainedge (4-0) a 14-point lead it would later turn into a 35-14 win in Nassau III Saturday. Soriente finished with 211 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries.
"He just did a lot of breaking tackles," Plainedge coach Rob Shaver said. "He ran very physically and didn't really run away from anybody. His longest run of the game was maybe 35 yards, but he was just crashing into guys and they were all above 5 yards."
In the Red Devils' first possession of the second half, Soriente was big, but quarterback Nick Frenger made a critical play that kept the drive alive when he completed an 18-yard pass to Nick Cupolo on 3rd-and-12 from the Hewlett 45-yard line.
"To be honest of our passing game was a big part of it," Shaver said. "When they brought a lot of guys in to stop [Soriente], [Frenger] really did a good job of opening it up."
Frenger completed 12 of 15 passes for 191 yards, and opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 43-yard touchdown pass to John Logan. Frenger completed his first eight passes, and also finished with 74 rushing yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
"[Frenger] was on from the get go," Shaver said. "He had tremendous pocket presence, and most of his big runs were escapee runs, so he was very efficient and threw the ball extremely well."
With five minutes left in the fourth, Hewlett (3-1) drove deep into Plainedge's territory trying to make it a one-score game trailing 28-14. On fourth-and-goal from the 11-yard line, Plainedge linebacker Brent Dillen made a stop and forced a fumble at the 2-yard line after Hewlett completed a screen pass, which John Johnson recovered in the end zone for a touchback.
"I thought we tackled extremely well," Shaver said. "There were a couple of chances they had to open up big plays but we tackled them one-on-one so it was very impressive."
