Amityville Nips Blue Devils, 20-19
Amityville rallied for 14 unanswered fourth quarter points to hand the Huntington High School football team a shocking loss on Homecoming Day, 20-19.
"It really hurt," Blue Devil head coach Steve Muller said about the loss. Huntington's star player, Devon Nelson, a senior running back and linebacker, left the game early in the third quarter with an injury and never returned.
The Blue Devils were also missing wide receiver/linebacker Christian Jamison. Yet, Huntington appeared on the way to its fourth consecutive victory without a loss on the strength of an aggressive running game, strategic passing and a defense that effectively stymied the Warriors' offense for most of the first three quarters.
Amityville's game winning 14 play, 92-yard in the final minutes left Huntington and its fans stunned. "There is never a good way to lose, but this was especially tough," Muller said. "It was frustrating."
Neither team managed to mount enough offense to score in the game until Huntington quarterback Ben Kocis hit wide receiver Josh Long with a 15-yard touchdown strike with 19 seconds left in the first half.
Huntington scored again when Anthony Puca reached the end zone on a one-yard plunge with about nine minutes remaining in the third quarter to give the Blue Devils a 12-0 lead. Amityville responded with a 33-yard touchdown pass from talented quarterback Sean Walters to Deon Richards to make it 12-6.
After Nelson went down, teammate Troy Greene stepped in to fill the void in the backfield, at one point carrying the ball on nine straight plays and gobbling up 68 yards. Greene darted one final yard for Huntington's last touchdown of the day. Patrick Reilly booted the extra point to give the Blue Devils a seemingly insurmountable 19-6 advantage. But, the Warriors weren't finished just yet.
First, Walters connected with O'Neill Armstrong for a 32-yard touchdown pass to make it 19-12. Later the quarterback led a remarkable two-minute, 92-yard drive with 3:28 on the clock that deflated Blue Devil fans and finally ended when Walters hit Richards near the back of the end zone with an eight-yard touchdown pass to cut Huntington's lead to a single point at 19-18.
Amityville head coach Chris Taylor, who teaches elementary physical education in the Huntington School District, elected to go for the two-point conversion and Walters (16-for-24 for 251 yards and three touchdowns) executed a shuttle pass to Eric Willis who fought his way to the goal line.
Huntington attempted a comeback with 1:27 showing on the scoreboard, but three straight passes fell incomplete and the Blue Devils were tagged with their first loss, denying fans a perfect end to the Homecoming Day festivities.
Huntington (3-1) travels to Deer Park (2-2) on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. The Falcons (1-3) dropped a 21-12 verdict at Hauppauge (1-3) last weekend.
Blue Devil Notes: Greene rushed 16 times for 99 yards . . . Nelson is Huntington's key player on defense and losing his services was a huge blow to the Blue Devils . . . The senior rushed 11 times for 60 yards before he was sidelined.