Long Beach wins opener at Kennedy

So impressive were the Long Beach Marines offensively in their 32-6 victory over Bellmore-JFK in the Conference II season opener for both teams last Saturday, they didn’t even have to score to make their point.

Leading by 26 when they took over for their final possession at their own 20 near the tail end of the third quarter, heading into the teeth of a wind that made the pylons in both end zones lie flat the entire afternoon, the Marines effectively played keep away for the final 12-plus minutes, patiently driving 75 yards while picking up seven first downs. The drive finally stalled at the Cougars five-yard line without yielding any points, but that was beside the point. Kennedy ran one play before the final whistle.

“It’s hard to get anything going when that happens to you,” Cougars head coach Nick Martone said. “Give them credit, they were clearly the better team today.”

To the Cougars credit, that was not immediately evident. It was the Cougars who jumped out to a 6-0 lead, and they were still within two points and giving the Marines fits before getting hit with a big play. Long Beach’s James Forkin looked to be bottled up on a run to the outside with about three minutes to play in the first half. But Forkin cut hard to the inside and saw nothing but grass in front of him. He scampered all the way to the five before Ralph Faiella caught him from behind. Two plays later Forkin finished what he started, ramming his way in from two yards out. A two-point conversion by Christopher Parler, one of his four on the day, made it 16-6 just before halftime.

The Marines, playing with the wind at their backs, struck quickly in the third quarter. Senior quarterback Adam Salvadori found Forkin for one of his two touchdown passes, a beautiful connection on a wheel route along the left sideline for 37 yards. He’d thrown his other touchdown pass into the same end zone, but along the right sideline, in the first quarter. William Kane completed the scoring with a touchdown run. From there Long Beach expertly killed the clock.

“I was pleased with our effort,” Long Beach head coach Scott Martin said. “We tried to use the wind to our advantage when we had it, and I thought our defense played really well all day.”

The Marines immediately began preparing for their next game, a showdown with Carey. The Seahawks beat Long Beach twice last season, including 26-12 in the playoffs.

Kennedy, which looks forward to a meeting with Mepham, started last season 0-3 before winning its last five games and earning a spot in the playoffs. It was the Cougars first five-win season since 1973, a feat that won’t be easy to match.

“It’s not supposed to be easy,” Martone said. “If it was easy, everyone would do it. We did some good things today, and this is a resilient group.”