The J. Taylor Finley Middle School football team improved its record to 4-1 with a 25-12 victory over visiting East Northport last Saturday morning.
The Finley defense stopped East Northport’s offense on its first drive before Timmy McDonald took a handoff and scored on an 80 yard run on the Blue Devils’ first play from scrimmage.
East Northport responded with a touchdown on its next possession, but failed on the two point conversion to knot the score at 6-6. “We then drove down the field and scored on a 27 yard touchdown run by Tommy Kine,” Finley head coach Jordan Ioviero said. Kline connected with Thomas Smith on the conversion play to put the home team up by a 13-6 score.
After Finley forced East Northport to turn the ball over on downs, the Blue Devils fumbled on the next series. “Again, our defense held, and our offense scored on the following possession on a 55 yard touchdown run by Timmy McDonald,” Ioviero said.
Finley’s defense continued to look impressive, forcing East Northport to again turn the ball over on downs. But Finley went on to fumble the ball away again. After two more defensive stops, the Finley offense again found the end zone, scoring on an 18 yard touchdown run by Adrian White, to give the team a 25-6 lead.
Before the game was over, East Northport would score again to make the final margin 25-12.
All things considered, it was a great morning for the home team. Finley rushed 22 times for 384 yards and four touchdowns led by McDonald, who ran for 214 yards on five carries. Kline (five carries for 86 yards), Frank Algieri (seven carries on 44 yards) Kashiem Sexton (one carry for six yards), Smith (three carries for 16 yards) and White (one carry for 18 yards) all contributed to the ground game.
McDonald also led Finley’s defense with 14.5 tackles. Kevin London was credited with 9.5 tackles. Kline (4.5) Sean Posillico (4), Joe Boeckman (3.5), Geovanny Castillo (3) Algieri (3), Nile Williams (2.5), Geoffrey Hoffmann (2), Smith (2), White (1.5) and Vincent Pupillo (1.5) all had multiple tackles in the game. Dylan Heller, Will Fallon Brandon Cohen, Walter Kusterbeck, Jakeem Casey, Ronan Sosnowski and Sean Egan also brought down ball carriers.
Kline completed two of four passes, including one to Nick Normoyle for 12 yards. Smith caught the extra point conversion.
Ioviero said he especially wanted to highlight the play of McDonald. “He is a special football player and an exceptional leader,” the coach said. “He lead our team with 14.5 tackles, 214 yards and two touchdowns. Our offensive line did a great job blocking up front and he was able to make some great plays throughout the game. I can’t wait to see what his future holds when he goes up to the high school. I’d also like to highlight the outside linebackers on both the A and B teams. Sean Posillico, Joseph Boeckman, Thomas Smith and Nick Normoyle bought into their roles and did an excellent job setting the edges for our inside linebackers to plays.”
Finley will square off on Wednesday against Northport in the final game of the season.