Zamet's timely passes help lift Babylon over BBP
Babylon wide reciever Stephen Louden #85 takes the ball 69 yards for a touchdown in the first half. (Oct. 15, 2010) Credit: George A. Faella
Sam Zamet is like a fish - he can only be baited so much.
With Bayport-Blue Point stacking eight and nine defenders in the box in an effort to stop the run (which they couldn't do, either), Zamet turned Babylon's methodical offense into a quick-strike attack.
Zamet completed only three throws, but he passed for 133 yards and two scores, including a 41-yard strike to Greg Dietrich to put the Panthers up by three scores in the third quarter. Babylon went on to win, 45-21, at Bayport-Blue Point on Friday night that left both teams at 4-2 in Suffolk Division IV.
"You can only put so many kids in the backfield," Zamet said. "When they've got so many guys at the line, you have to get the ball out to your playmakers, and I can throw the ball good enough to do that."
His touchdown pass to Dietrich with 2 minutes, 11 seconds left in the third quarter gave Babylon a 31-7 lead with the conversion. Bayport-Blue Point scored on its next two possessions, but the Panthers' Trevor Fudim closed the game with two late touchdown runs to seal the win. Fudim, who ran 28 times for 140 yards, had a career day with four rushing touchdowns. But even he knew that without a few timely passes, the large holes he ran through wouldn't have been there.
"They were overloading on the run," he said, "so when we passed, there was nothing they could do."
On Babylon's only pass of the first half, Zamet threw a quick out to Stephen Loudon, who raced down the left sideline 69 yards for a TD to make it 13-0.
BBP answered in extremely contradictory fashion. The Phantoms' ensuing possession began with 51.6 seconds left in the first quarter and didn't finish until Zach Flood punched it into the end zone from 7 yards out on fourth-and-2 with 2:37 left in the half. The drive proved costly for BBP though, as the Phantoms' leading rusher, Ryan McCoy, was lost for the game with back spasms after he took a helmet to his back on a 5-yard run.
Babylon ran just four second-quarter plays, but got on the board quickly in the second half as a fumble recovery on the opening kickoff led to Andrew Hurst's 22-yard field goal.
It was the second time in the game a BBP turnover gave Babylon the ball inside the Phantoms' 15. In the first quarter, Christian Amelia recovered a muffed punt on the 7, and Fudim punched it in two plays later from 5 yards on a toss to the right side to make it 6-0.
Said Phantoms coach Eric Iberger: "You can't give them the ball on the doorstep twice and expect them not to score."
And you can't bait Zamet into throwing and expect not to get burned.
