67.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Baldwin return sinks Jets
Posted
Alonzo Holcombe had 197 yards and two touchdowns.
Frank Koester/Herald
As Baldwin seniors Alonzo Holcombe and Troy Dennis stood at their own 10-yard line and awaited East Meadow’s kickoff, an uncle shouted some last-second instructions from outside the fence line off the back of the Bruins end zone. “You run this one back,” he screamed several times, hoping to spur one of the return men on the heels of the Jets’ game-tying touchdown with 3:31 remaining in the fourth quarter of their Nassau Conference I football playoff game last Saturday.
Dennis didn’t disappoint, racing 81 yards for the touchdown and delivering the knockout blow for No. 7 Baldwin in its 28-21 road win at No. 2 East Meadow. “Most of the time I wait to set up [for the return],” Dennis said. “But somebody blocked down and I just took it outside.”
The win catapults the Bruins (5-4) into the semifinals against No. 1 Freeport at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium this Saturday at 4 p.m. The Red Devils won a Sept. 17 meeting between the teams, 7-0, and comes off a 63-24 win over No. 8 Oceanside.
East Meadow appeared to take the wind out of Baldwin's sails just one play before Dennis' kick return, capping a six-play, 60-yard drive on senior Lou Buschi's 33-yard touchdown pass to senior Jesse Callan. Despite the throw floating at the end, Callan came back to it, grabbing it away from junior Aaron Greene at the goal line and falling backwards into the end zone for the tying score. The touchdown came one play after junior defensive end Eyituoyl Ofuya registered his second sack of the game.
Just two weeks earlier, East Meadow won the regular season meeting at Baldwin, 28-0, as seniors Steven Katz and Robert Bright combined for 262 yards rushing. This time around, Katz did score a pair of touchdowns, but the Bruins limited the Jets to just 148 yards rushing and forced four turnovers.
Senior Tony Jones, playing his first game at linebacker after spending the regular season in the secondary, led the Baldwin defense with 15 tackles and 1.5 sacks, while Dennis, Holcombe and junior linebacker Demetrias Reynolds each picked off East Meadow passes.
Offensively, Baldwin proved early the mistakes it made in the first meeting were all in the past. Holcombe, bottled up for 36 yards on 16 carries in the loss to the Jets, rebounded with 196 yards on 19 attempts, including an 87-yarder up the gut from his own three in the second quarter. That set up the first score of the game, a 4-yard run senior Femi Aliyu on fourth down. Junior quarterback Nick LoBello scored on a 1-yard keeper to give Baldwin a 14-0 lead in the second quarter, while Holcombe's 5-yard scoring run broke a 14-14 tie in the fourth.
"It was important to score an offensive touchdown," Carroll said, noting several changes on offense, including some plays run out of the Wildcat formation and Straight-I. "We hadn't scored an offensive touchdown in three games."
Report an inappropriate comment
Comments