Nick La Rosa, North Shore improve to 6-0 with win over West Hempstead

North Shore football coach Daniel Agovino’s pregame message was simple.

“We wanted to be loose, but we wanted to be focused,” Agovino said. “That’s exactly what we came with into the game because we knew it was going to be back and forth.”

The visiting Vikings survived a late, 12-play West Hempstead drive and ran out the remaining 1:39 to hang on for a 14-7 victory on Saturday in a Nassau Conference IV matchup of unbeaten teams.

“We just wanted to make our statement,” North Shore running back Nick La Rosa said. “Tell this conference that we’re the best team out there.”

North Shore (6-0) came into the season as the No. 1 seed after winning the Class IV Long Island Championsip last season with a 7-0 victory over Shoreham-Wading River.

La Rosa and Vikings quarterback Peter Liotta teamed up for 181 rushing yards and both North Shore touchdowns.

West Hempstead (5-1) quarterback Corey Pierre ran for 64 yards and completed five passes for 84 yards and a touchdown. It was the first time this season the Rams were held under 28 points.

“When two teams are very evenly matched, the team that plays the cleanest wins,” West Hempstead coach Dominic Carre said. “We made a couple mistakes, and they weren’t huge mistakes, but they were mistakes and [North Shore] capitalized.”

North Shore took advantage of a short West Hempstead punt to set up the team's first touchdown of the afternoon. Two plays into the drive, La Rosa sliced a 25-yard run up the middle to give the Vikings a first-quarter lead.

Late in the second quarter, Pierre found Jurrel Hall streaking across the field for a 55-yard touchdown pass with just over two minutes to play in the first half to tie the score.

But on North Shore's ensuing possession, Liotta bounced off two West Hempstead defenders, reversed his route to the left sideline, and dashed 60 yards to put North Shore back ahead with 1:48 left in the half.

“At first, I lowered my shoulder, just trying to get what I could, get the offense going, but then I bounced off and took off for the races,” Liotta said. “That was huge. After a tie game, we needed the momentum on our side.”

Liotta’s 60-yard scamper stood as the deciding score. West Hempstead forced a turnover on downs with 9:41 left in the fourth quarter before embarking on the 12-play drive that ended at North Shore’s 35-yard line on a tackle by Isaac Bratter on fourth down.

North Shore hosts Cold Spring Harbor, which the Vikings beat in last year’s Nassau Conference IV Championship, next Saturday.

“It’s tough," La Rosa said, "every team kind of looks at us as their Super Bowl."

Liotta added, “We know teams are coming for us, and we like that."