Inspired by Thomas Cutinella, Shoreham-Wading River beats Mount Sinai
Shoreham-Wading River quarterback Dylan Zahn fakes the hand-off to Max Barone during a Suffolk Division IV football game against Mt. Sinai in Shoreham on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
If playing for first place against crosstown rival Mount Sinai wasn’t enough to get the Shoreham-Wading River football team amped to play under the lights, the Wildcats had the extra motivation Friday night.
The team came out in their ‘Tommy Tough’ jerseys, in honor of Thomas Cutinella, a former SWR football player who passed away seven years to the day after sustaining an injury on the field.
"We don’t usually wear these until the playoffs but today was an important day so we decided to wear them," h-back and outside linebacker Dylan Kiely said.
For nearly three quarters things looked to be going as planned for the Wildcats, jumping out to a three-score lead.
But the Mustangs wouldn’t go away, drawing to within a touchdown early in the fourth quarter before the SWR defense buckled down to help secure a 20-13 victory and the top spot in Suffolk Division IV.
"That’s a really good, well coached football team," SWR coach Aden Smith said. "They are always prepared and it didn’t surprise us that we had to play them down to the wire. I’m proud of my guys for fighting until the end and being resilient."
The teams exchanged turnovers on their opening drives before SWR put together an 11-play, 45-yard drive that was capped by an 8-yard touchdown run by quarterback Dylan Zahn to open the scoring.
Mt. Sinai proceeded to go three-and-out on its next drive and the Wildcats (4-0) once again had another 11-play drive, this one totaling 75 yards and punctuated by a 14-yard touchdown run by Max Barone.
"Max has the best vision I’ve ever seen from a ball carrier," Kiely said.
Zahn and Barone led the way on the ground early and after Mt. Sinai (3-1) committed to loading the box to stop the run SWR was able to hit some big shots down the field.
Zahn found Kiely for a 35-yard pass over the middle on the Wildcats second drive in the second half and finished the drive with a 33-yard touchdown strike to Liam Leonard on fourth-and-17 late in the quarter for a 20-0 lead.
"We’ve had those plays set up for a while and we haven’t brought them out in our previous games," Kiely said. "We’ve been waiting for the right moment and tonight was it. Dylan [Zahn] was watching the safeties all game and when they came down I was wide open."
Mt. Sinai came alive on the following possession after James Carretta took a screen pass 58 yards and found the end zone on a 2-yard run two plays later. After forcing a SWR three-and-out, Carretta returned a punt 65-yard to the end zone to cut the deficit to 20-13.
"We knew we had to keep our energy up," Zahn said. "We started to slow down and that’s when everybody started to rally together."
Both defenses held strong the rest of the game, giving the Wildcats the early edge in a rivalry that has extended into the Suffolk IV title game each of the last three years.
"This win was huge," Barone said. "There was a different sort of energy in the air and everyone felt more excited because it’s a huge rivalry for us."
Gene Morris joined Newsday's sports department in September 2012 and covers high school sports. He earned a journalism degree from Stony Brook University in 2010.
