Islip's usual stout defense shines in Suffolk III final
Islip's Tim Sheppard sacks Sayville quarterback Jack Coan, who fumbles the ball in the first half of the Suffolk Division III football final at LaValle Stadium on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
On the biggest stage and facing one of Long Island's most potent offenses, Islip flashed its outstanding defense yet again.
Sayville had averaged 45.3 points per game this season. Its average margin of victory had been 37. But in Thursday night's 28-21 loss to the Golden Flashes in the Suffolk III championship game at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium, Islip held Sayville to its lowest point total of the season.
Sayville took a 14-7 lead in the first quarter behind two touchdown passes by Jack Coan, including his Long Island record-breaking 39th of the season. But the Bucs (8-3) didn't allow a TD pass by Coan after the first quarter and prevented Sayville (11-0) from scoring again until 9:47 remained in the fourth.
"Sayville's one of the all-time best teams and we went toe-to-toe with them," Islip coach Jamie Lynch said. " Selts and Coan and Rupp, their big-time guys, they made big-time plays on that last drive. It's a tough loss, but my guys are champions and I couldn't be prouder of them.
"People saw us as kind of a middle-of-the-road team. A lot of our guys were first-year starters," Lynch said. "Nobody gave us any chance this season and our guys took it to heart."
With 7:36 left in the second quarter, Islip forced an incomplete pass by Coan on fourth down. On Sayville's next possession, consecutive sacks by Vinny Benenati and Corey Flaherty forced a punt.
That set up Islip's game-tying score, a 54-yard pass from Will Killeen to Raphael Alomar. Shortly thereafter, Flaherty broke through the line and stripped Coan, and Benenati recovered the ball for Islip.
In the second half, a blocked punt by Benenati and an interception by Brian Carberry -- only Coan's seventh interception of the season -- kept Islip in the game until Matt Selts scored the winning TD on a 1-yard run with 30 seconds left.
"Our line did a great job of holding Coan in check," Lynch said. "We're just a tough, blue-collar group. One of the toughest groups that we've had at Islip in a long time."
