Freeport holds off East Meadow

After losing a one-point shootout at home against East Meadow last season, Freeport had all of its weapons on display in last Friday night’s Conference I opener and held on to win a thriller, 42-40.

Junior Aaje Grayson had a 35-yard touchdown run and a 35-yard punt return for a touchdown in the third quarter as the Red Devils erased a six-point deficit on the way to avenging last year’s 41-40 defeat. Senior quarterback Rashad Tucker threw a pair of scoring passes and rushed for 111 yards, and senior Jahred Wray found the end zone twice. The Jets were led by senior Justin Reyes, who had rushing and receiving touchdowns as well as a two-point conversion run.

“We knew they were coming in here with a very good football team,” Freeport head coach Russ Cellan said. “We have a bunch of guys who can step on the gas and go,” he added. “I thought a big thing tonight was how well our inexperienced linemen were able to grind it out. We have all new linemen on both sides of the ball.”

The Red Devils held their own in the trenches and won the battle of special teams. In addition to Grayson’s punt return, senior kicker Will Presbrey went 6-for-6 on extra-point tries, and Tucker bombed a long punt to East Meadow’s 5-yard line with less than two minutes remaining. Meanwhile, the Jets failed to covert three extra points.

“Sometimes you’re the hammer, and sometimes you’re the nail,” East Meadow head coach Vin Mascia said. “Tonight we were the nail. We made some big plays offensively, but our defense had a real difficult time with their speed. We couldn’t simulate that kind of speed in practice. They have four exceptional skill players.”

Freeport scored all three times it touched the ball in the third quarter after the visitors took a 27-21 lead on senior Joe Matchekosky’s second touchdown of the night just two minutes into the second half. The Red Devils responded with a quick two-play drive, set up by senior Elijay Campbell’s kickoff return to the 46. Tucker ran for 19 yards on first down, then Grayson found paydirt on the next snap. Presbrey’s PAT put the hosts ahead for good.

Wray had a 13-yard catch on Freeport’s next possession, and Grayson made it 42-27 after East Meadow was forced to punt from its own end zone.

“My coaches were yelling from the sideline to be ready for the punt,” Grayson said. “As soon as I caught it, I saw an open lane and just followed all the wonderful blocks.” 

The Jets got within eight on senior quarterback Anthony LaRosa’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Reyes with 7:01 to go, and senior Paul Imperiale’s nifty takeaway set up Reyes’ 14-yard touchdown run with 4:52 remaining. However, LaRosa was stopped by a swarm of Red Devils on the potential game-tying conversion run.

“We’ll take whatever positives we can from this, and maybe we’ll see Freeport again down the road,” Mascia said.