Vinny Guarino spearheads Oceanside's excellent season
Oceanside quarterback No. 18 Vincent Guarino, left, gets congratulated by No. 5 Nick Mari after he ran for a 2-yard touchdown in the second quarter of the Nassau Conference I final against Farmingdale at Hofstra on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015. Credit: James Escher
In a championship battle of undefeated teams, one of the squads featured was hardly a surprise to anybody who has followed Nassau I football -- Farmingdale.
The other, No. 1 Oceanside, entered the season as one of the longest of long shots. But don't tell that to the Sailors.
"This was a very important year for our program, especially after having a tough year last year," Oceanside coach Rob Blount said after the Sailors' 34-23 loss to Farmingdale on Saturday at Hofstra. "It brought back some stability and we raised it to new points and we got to keep chopping away to get to that upper echelon."
Oceanside won two games last season and hadn't played in a Nassau final in 38 years (1977). But Blount knew this year's team was different because of a "great group of seniors" -- arguably none better than quarterback Vinny Guarino.
Guarino rushed for 108 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries and completed 20 of 32 passes for 215 yards. With the Sailors trailing by 21 points late in the third quarter, he orchestrated a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive followed by an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive -- with his passing and running accounting for all 155 of Oceanside's yards.
He capped the drives with rushing touchdowns of 4 and 1 yards, narrowing the score to 31-23.
"He's carried us the entire season," Blount said. "It's been his thing and we're missing a big guy next year, so it's going to be tough to fill his shoes."
"We knew it could have been our last 24 minutes of football," Guarino said of the second half, "so we kind of just rallied ourselves. We knew we had to score -- there's no 21-point play -- so we just chopped it down as much as we can and we tried our hardest."
Guarino spread the ball around from the shotgun, connecting with James Paczkowski eight times for 105 yards, Dylan Judd five times for 51 yards, Nick Mari five times for 39 yards and Vincent Vollaro once for 18 yards. His strong offensive line, featuring seniors Nick Pizzarelli and John Malloy, gave Guarino the time he needed.
Oceanside (10-1) was potent throughout the season and had an average victory of 21.4 points (34.1 to 12.7) leading up to the final. Its defense recorded one shutout and held teams to eight or fewer points four other times.
Even in the loss, the defense held Farmingdale below its average of 39 points per game. Oceanside also outgained Farmingdale 356-245 in total yardage.
"This is a big, big, tremendously big step for our program, and losses happen," Blount said. "But not anything is going to take away from what we did this year."
