Mike Catanese leads Carey past Garden City for Nassau II title
Carey's Mike Catanese looks for an open receiver during the Nassau II football final on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014 at Hofstra. Credit: James Escher
Nick Spillane kept hearing the same question before this season started.
How would Carey's football team, coming off an undefeated season, fare with junior quarterback Mike Catanese as its first-year starter?
"Going into this season, everyone thought Mike was a question mark for us," said Spillane, a wide receiver-defensive back. "But we had no doubts he could get us to this point."
Consider the question answered.
Catanese ran for two touchdowns and threw for one to lift Carey over Garden City, 21-6, on Saturday at Hofstra as the Seahawks captured their second straight Nassau II championship.
Carey (11-0) extended its winning streak to 23 and will play East Islip on Saturday for the Long Island Class II championship. Garden City finished at 9-2.
"This," Catanese said, "is incredibly special to me and this team."
In a game dictated by field position and defense, Spillane had a game-high 52 rushing yards on 12 carries and made four catches for 46 yards. Catanese ran for 48 yards on 22 carries and completed 5 of 9 passes for 61 yards.
The stats weren't impressive, but Catanese came up big at pivotal points.
He made it 21-6 with 8:45 left when he scampered in from the 4 after faking a handoff to Mike De Leo. It was the second time Catanese was involved in a touchdown on a fourth-down play. "We have the utmost confidence in Mike on fourth downs," Spillane said. "He rises to the occasion."
Catanese hit the wide-open Spillane with a pretty fade to the left side of the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 8 to make it 14-0 with 3:51 left in the second quarter.
"We hadn't ran that play much at all," Spillane said. "We knew they would press at the line and had a feeling it would work."
Carey defensive lineman John Heyer set up that scoring drive when he recovered a fumble off a botched snap at Garden City's 23.
It was one of several big plays by the Seahawks' defense.
"It was our defense and offensive line that secured this for us," Spillane said. "Our defensive line held it down today."
Garden City's Justin Samardich scampered in from the 1 to cut the deficit to 14-6 with 58 seconds left in the second quarter.
The Trojans threatened to score on their first drive of the second half, but Heyer blocked a 27-yard field goal attempt with seven minutes left in the third quarter.
Defensive lineman Thomas Gallant had three sacks, including one on Garden City's final drive that pinned the Trojans inside their 10 with less than two minutes left.
Thomas Mayer intercepted a pass on the Trojans' first drive. Carey capitalized with the game's first touchdown with 5:45 left in the first quarter when Catanese scored untouched from the 1. It capped an 11-play, 54-yard drive.
"This kind of solidifies our team," Spillane said. "It's all due to hard work, and as players, we don't expect anything less. We knew going into this season that it was kind of ours to lose with all the expectations people had. We did a very good job of blocking all of that out.''
Catanese said the team isn't satisfied yet, though.
"We got one more week," he said. "We don't want it to end. We got 23 in a row, but we want one more."
The only question left is if they'll get it.
