High school sports

‘The battle of Ocean Avenue’

Rocks win over Malverne 28-20

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On Saturday afternoon, Malverne High School celebrated its homecoming day by providing plenty of music, food and attractions for its students and their families.

But, once the day’s homecoming football game got underway, rival East Rockaway put an end to the party rather quickly.

The Rocks scored 21 unanswered points in the first quarter, and rode their fast start to a 28-20 victory, in a match-up that the head coaches on both teams have coined, “The Battle of Ocean Avenue”.

The two schools are located less than three miles from each other on the same road, and have their athletes team up in other sports, such as lacrosse. With this being the case, there was plenty of familiarity between the players, something that East Rockaway quarterback Michael Del Gais says helped fuel his team.

“We were all really motivated to win this game, because we all play sports with them,” Del Gais said. “It feels great to beat them, and it’s a really big game, starting off 2-0 going into Seaford.”

Running backs Daniel Fusco and Colin Barnes helped the Rocks put points on the board early in the game, each rushing for a touchdown within the first eight minutes.

Then with 2:29 left in the opening quarter, Del Gais connected with Thomas Rogers for a 31-yard touchdown pass, that gave East Rockaway a commanding 21-0 lead.

“We just had a gameplan and stuck with it,” Rocks head coach Russell Pajer said. “The kids did what they were supposed to do this week in practice and they executed.”

For most of the first half it was a struggle offensively for the Mules, a team that was missing its starting quarterback, Dante Lacroix, due to injury. But after seeing East Rockaway expand their lead to 28 points on a rushing touchdown by James Tierney early in the third, Malverne began to find their game.

“We got off to a slow start,” Mules head coach Kito Lockwood said. “At halftime we made adjustments and made some substitutions, and were able to get some things going.”

With 3:52 remaining in the third quarter, a Maurice Teachey Jr. touchdown pass to Anfernee Steele finally got Malverne on the board. Then with 6:27 left in the fourth, Amarie Reyes’ 26-yard touchdown rush cut the Rocks lead to 28-12.

Reyes would strike again with 2:06 remaining in regulation, breaking an 86-yard touchdown run to keep the Mules alive late. But, Malverne’s comeback would fall just short, as James Fusco recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt for East Rockaway.

“I think East Rockaway got a little fatigued and tired, but we ran out of time,” Lockwood said.

The Rocks remained undefeated on the season, and were awarded a trophy on the field after the game, for coming up victorious in the “Battle of Ocean Avenue”.

Pajer believes that this could just be the start of big things to come for his squad.

“[Holding up that trophy] felt good,” he said. “Hopefully we can hold another one up at the end of the year.”