Football: After a 2-hour, 40-minute delay, Nanuet completes shutout win over Sleepy Hollow
NANUET - A two-hour and 40-minute weather delay for thunderstorms might have dampened the mood, but Nanuet was definitely charged up to go four quarters on Saturday.
The Golden Knights opened their season with a 29-0 victory over visiting Sleepy Hollow.
"It obviously was a little crazy with the delay, but kids did what they could do to make sure they stayed focused," Nanuet coach Phil Carbone said. "It's not easy, it was definitely not the norm. I'm sure it was happening throughout the section today, so I'm really proud of how we came out focused and just picked up from where we left off."
Nanuet had just scored a touchdown, when Max Valese found an open Jack O'Sullivan on fourth down, and he turned up field for a 33-yard touchdown reception. The Golden Knights made the ensuing two-point conversion to take a 15-0 lead with 7:05 remaining in the third quarter, when the game was put on pause.
"No one was sure whether we were going to play today or tomorrow, but we still had that mindset that we had to finish the game and win," O'Sullivan said. "And we did."
Once play resumed, Nanuet kept the pressure up on both sides of the ball. Defensively, they forced the Horsemen to go three-and-out for the remainder of the game.
Offensively, the Golden Knights found plenty of success with their ground-and-pound offense. Nine different Golden Knights registered carries throughout the game, and while five of them were able to run for 25 or more yards, they all seemed successful and interchangeable in their run-heavy attack.
"That's all we do," Nanuet lineman Andrew Hastings said. "We run and we might have a small line, but all of us are strong and physical. We love getting it in there with the big guys and eating up like we did today."
For Sleepy Hollow, it will look to regroup in the upcoming short week. Most teams in Section 1 will be playing on Thursday night.
The Horsemen ran for 326 yards in last week's win over Morristown-Beard (N.J.), but were unable to find the same success against Nanuet.
Sleepy Hollow kept it close early on and only trailed 7-0 going into halftime, but it was unable to breakthrough.
"Nanuet's good, and there's a reason why they've been in the playoffs every year and they're a good program, we're still trying to get there," Sleepy Hollow coach Jerry Flora said. "We won last week and everyone seems to think that just because we won last week, we're going to be in the section playoffs. This program has a long history of losing that we're trying to break. I think we're taking steps, but are the steps as fast as we would like? No, but it's only the second game of the season and we have a long season ahead of us."
What it means
Nanuet wins its season opener and Sleepy Hollow will try to bounce back from its first loss of the season. For both teams, the road only gets tougher from here. Sleepy Hollow will try to turn things quickly around in time to play Nyack, and Nanuet will have another Class B newcomer to quickly prepare for in Rye on Thursday night.
Game balls
Nanuet offensive line: The Golden Knights paved the way for their balanced attack and played a big role in helping their team get 258 rushing yards in the win.
Nanuet defense: The Golden Knights defense shutout a Sleepy Hollow team that ran for 326 yards on 46 carries last week and limited them to just 75 yards of total offense.
Jack O'Sullivan, Nanuet: He was active on defense and while the Golden Knights didn't throw much, he made it count when passes came his way on third or fourth down. He had two touchdown receptions of 13 and 46 yards.
By the numbers
Nanuet (1-0): The Golden Knights had nine different ball carriers combine for 258 yards. Vincent Duffy led the pack with 71 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Colin Stemmerman had 60 yards on seven carries, plus a two-point conversion run. Blake Flowers had 14 carries for 36 yards. Evan Moran ran six times for 26 yards and a touchdown. Logan Stemmerman had three carries for 45 yards. Max Valese completed 3 of 5 passes for 53 yards. Thomas Ryan had a fumble recovery.
Sleepy Hollow (1-1): Evan Bowen had 49 yards on nine carries. The Horsemen had one turnover on a fumbled snap.
They said it
"29-0 says you're not very good, and we are good, we played hard for two and a half quarters but they made big plays, which is what good teams do," Flora said. "We had opportunities to make big plays and we didn't do it. I, as the coach, will have to go back and we have to figure out how to make those big plays happen. ... I would like to think that they're going to lock in and we got a short week, we don't really have a choice. We haven't played a home game and we only get three home games this year, this is an opportunity for us to be at home and in front of our crowd to win a big game that will get us to 2-1."
"We were all really hyped up for this first game," Hastings said. "Practiced a lot of defense this week, put in a lot of work knowing the different sets and knowing who we're locked on to. That just really paid off, we limited them and got the goose."
Follow Eugene Rapay on Twitter at @erapay5 and on Instagram at @byeugenerapay.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Football: Nanuet completes shutout over Sleepy Hollow after long delay
