Grant, Slane help North Babylon rally
North Babylon's Ryan Slane (26) finds his way into open field. (Nov. 5, 2011) Credit: Richard Slattery
Two tough decisions for North Babylon turned into no-brainers Saturday because of the determination of Ryan Slane and T.Q. Grant, albeit in different forms.
The first question Bulldogs coach Terry Manning had to answer: Should Grant, who hadn't played a full game in nearly a month because of a hamstring injury, enter for the final series with North Babylon down by a touchdown? Well, Grant scored on his second carry to bring the Bulldogs within one point with 57.4 seconds to play.
That posed another question for Manning: Should North Babylon go for the win with a two-point conversion? Slane and his buddies answered that for him.
"He asked us 'What do you guys want to do?' " Slane recalled Manning saying. "Everyone in the huddle said yes."
Slane, the gritty North Babylon quarterback, kept his team's season alive, as he bulled in for the two-pointer that stood as the winning points in a 22-21 victory over Deer Park in the first round of the Division II playoffs. The No. 3 Bulldogs (7-2) will play at No. 2 East Islip next weekend in the county semifinal. No. 6 Deer Park finished 5-4.
Deer Park seemed primed for the upset after Austin Sweeting's 1-yard TD run gave the Falcons a 21-14 lead with 3:07 to play. That's when Grant asked Manning to play. "If we were going to lose," the tailback said, "I wanted to play in my last game as a senior."
Grant rushed for 3 yards on his first carry, then 2 on the touchdown. "It was a delayed signal, so I wasn't sure if I got in," Grant said of his ninth rushing TD of the season and first since Week 4. "Then the crowd erupted. It was unbelievable."
Slane said Grant's mere presence "boosted" everyone in the huddle, but what Grant brought in intangibles, Slane brought in actual yardage. On the six-play, 87-yard scoring drive, Slane rushed for 38 yards and completed a 44-yard pass to Spencer Davidson. The drive began with a false start penalty, one of nine infractions called against the Bulldogs in the game.
Slane finished with 115 yards on 28 carries and was 5-for-8 passing for 90 yards, with all five completions going to Davidson. "I was a little dazed," Slane said about how he felt before his conversion run.
The final one-point advantage was North Babylon's only lead. Joe Gimeli made a gorgeous diving catch in the back of the end zone on a pass from Sweeting from 18 yards to make it 6-0 Deer Park 2:29 into the game. Then, after Damien Lugo returned a fumble recovery 76 yards to North Babylon's 3-yard line, Sweeting pounded in his first rushing touchdown and hit Lance Rose for the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 10:59 left in the second quarter.
The North Babylon fumble came on fourth-and-3 from Deer Park's 22, the 17th play of the drive. In the first half, the Bulldogs had an 18:59-5:01 advantage in time of possession, but didn't score until Slane's 2-yard touchdown run 55 seconds before halftime.
That drive, set up by David Adames' fumble recovery in Deer Park territory, was all Slane -- six straight runs from the 20. In fact, Slane, also the North Babylon kicker, scored all of North Babylon's points aside from Grant's touchdown. Said Slane: "I felt ready and I wanted the ball."
Giving it to him was an easy decision for Manning.
