Haggart, Ferreira lead Sayville's second-half rally
Sayville High School quarterback #12 Steven Ferreira, right, throws a screen pass to #10 Tom Hannan in the second quarter. (Sept. 24, 2010) Credit: James Escher
It was the first-ever episode of Friday Night Lights, live from Deer Park High School. And for the first 24 minutes, most of the crowd of more than 1,200 fans was enjoying the script.
But during the commercial - make that halftime - break, Sayville rewrote the script and changed the ending to the first night football game in Deer Park history.
The Golden Flashes, behind leading men Steven Ferreira and John Haggart and a host of co-stars on defense, rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to defeat Deer Park, 29-21, in a Suffolk Division III football game. Sayville trailed 21-9 at intermission.
"That's Sayville football. The second half is definitely our half," said Haggart, a sophomore who gained 50 of his 52 yards in the second half, running over tacklers and scoring on runs of 2 and 4 yards.
He's also the team's punter and kicker and nailed all three of his PATs.
"He's a beast," Sayville coach Rob Hoss said of Haggart, who did most of the second-half running while Tom Dieckhoff (51 yards) was the primary carrier in the first half. "He'll be one of the most explosive backs we've ever had in the program."
Ferreira had another big day, completing 18 of 25 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns, including a 16-yarder to Mike Hewson that gave Sayville (3-0) its first lead, 22-21, on the final play of the third quarter.
That score came after the second of two crushing turnovers that cost Deer Park (2-1). The Falcons had made several big plays in the first half - a 74-yard TD pass from Austin Sweeting to Ornob Chowdhury, a 50-yard scoring run by Sweeting and a 68-yard run by Damien Lugo that set up another score - but couldn't follow the script.
Both turnovers came on errant pitchouts, one recovered by Rob Newell and the other by Justin Fronckwicz. Both led to touchdowns and for the second week in a row, Sayville shut out its opponent in the second half.
"When you run the triple option [Deer Park's offense], you'll put the ball on the floor," Hoss said. "We just had to play assignment football and make the big plays."
In the second half, Sayville delivered its lines perfectly.
