This Saturday night we had a rematch in the Long Island Championship game between the defending champions Massapequa and the team that upended last year, William Floyd.
A new venue didn't change the result from last season as William Floyd and coach Paul Longo dropped a heartbreaker to their Nassau county counterparts 42-40.
In line with the weekend of Nassau dominance over Suffolk, Nassau winning all four titles, the game was nip and tuck all the way but at the end of the day the team standing on LaValle Stadium at Stony Brook was the Nassau County champions and now the back to back Long Island champions, Massapequa.
William Floyd came into the game with a distinct crowd advantage in this one. On a cold night, that brought the first snowflakes of the season, it would be raining points for both teams. That scoring began early for Floyd as AJ Cannet hit Joshua Jordan within the first five minutes to give them a 6-0 lead. Tyler Villata quickly responded to take the 7-6 lead and the night of a back and forth battle had begun.
Fumbles returned for a touchdown, an onside kick, Cannet to Jordan again, Villalta again, and we had an explosive 1st quarter that ended 21-14 in favor of Massapequa.
In the second quarter Cannet just missed Jordan for what would be their 3rd TD strike of the day and we watched Floyd punt for the first time all game. That was followed by more punts from both teams as the early game fireworks calmed down. Massapequa extended their lead with just over 2 minutes to play but on the ensuing kickoff Geo Alvarez returned it the distance to bring Floyd back within a touchdown. Ja'Quan Thomas scored to make it a one point game briefly before Tyler Villalta struck again with a long kick return and his brother scored the final TD of the half to make it 35-26 heading into the half.
Coming out of the locker rooms to a frozen field you could see the defenses really step up as we had a scoreless 3rd quarter. But, the explosiveness would soon return for the 4th. Thomas scored to bring the game within a field goal but a quick answer from Villalta made the score 42-32. Thomas then returned the favor with 3 minutes to play, getting the octopus and converting the two point conversion to cut the lead down to 42-40 and that is where it ended.
In a game that was like watching two great boxers exchange their best haymakers time after time it was one heck of a game and one that everyone will remember. For Floyd Cannet, Thomas and the entire team left it all on the field and just came up short in a classic battle between two heavyweights.