Longwood rallies to defeat Farmingdale in Class I championship game, 47-28
Longwood's Khalil Owens is lifted up by his team as he holds up their Long Island Class I championship trophy at Stony Brook on Nov. 29, 2015. Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara
Longwood is old-school football. The Lions line up and run you over. That smash-mouth style produced 555 yards rushing on Sunday night, a Long Island Championships record.
Halfback Khalil Owens ran for 271 yards and three touchdowns as Longwood erased a 14-point deficit and scored 47 consecutive points in a 47-28 win over Farmingdale in the Long Island Class I final before nearly 6,000 fans at Stony Brook University's LaValle Stadium.
It was the third Class I title and the eighth win in a row for the Lions (11-1), who denied the Dalers (11-1) a perfect season.
"We are a ground-and-pound team," tackle Matt Weiss said. "We line up and smack people in the mouth. This was a determined group of guys."
Who needs to throw when you can run like the Lions? They averaged 13.2 yards a carry, pushing around an athletic Farmingdale line. Fullbacks Latrell Horton and Mike Scalice hammered the Dalers' front and gave running room to Owens and Tahj Clark, who rushed for 99 yards on 11 carries and three scores.
"What I love most about our team is the unselfishness," offensive coordinator John Murphy said. "They play for each other. The line is incredibly strong, the fullbacks give it up on every play and our receivers block on the perimeter and downfield. When everyone does their part, these are the results."
Farmingdale opened the scoring after Christian Hernandez recovered a fumble at the Lions' 22. Five plays later, quarterback Anthony Burriesci scored on a 1-yard run and Briant DeFelice kicked the PAT. The Dalers made it 14-0 when Hakeem Cesar hauled in a perfect 57-yard pass from Burriesci with 3:36 left in the first quarter.
"We turned it over and let up a short-field score and then allowed a deep throw for a score," Longwood coach Jeff Cipp said. "But the key was we didn't panic and we didn't lose our composure. We went back to work and executed our offense."
The 14-point deficit lasted 57 seconds. Owens burst off right tackle behind a big block from Weiss and ran for a 76-yard touchdown. "The line gave me a lane and I was gone," Owens said. "We needed a big play to get the momentum."
Longwood reeled off 20 second-quarter points for a 27-14 halftime lead. Clark's two 8-yard scoring runs made it 21-14. His second one came after Horton broke three tackles on a 63-yard run to set up the go-ahead TD with 1:23 left in the half.
Longwood got the ball right back when Josh Rivers intercepted at the 37 to set up the backbreaking score. Scalice, one of Murphy's unselfish contributors, got his only carry -- and ripped off a 60-yard run up the middle. Only Ahmad Johnson's diving stop at the 3 prevented the touchdown.
"He'll have the best yards-per- carry in LIC history," Murphy said, laughing. "What a run."
Horton slammed it in from the 3 for the 27-14 halftime lead.
If the outcome still was in question, it took one play and 12 seconds of the third quarter to change that. Owens followed the blocks of guard Anthony Lavio and Weiss and raced untouched for 80 yards to make it 33-14.
"These games are won in the weight room in the offseason," said Horton, who had 118 yards on seven carries. "There is such a commitment in this program, and it shows when we push teams around. That Farmingdale team was real good, and look what happened."
Owens and Clark added TD runs for a 47-14 lead with 8:26 left in the fourth.
In the era of the spread offense, Longwood attempted two passes and achieved a dubious distinction: an LIC-record minus-4 yards. But it didn't matter, because Longwood took Farmingdale to school.
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
