Lynbrook, East Rockaway both playoff-bound

There will be Nassau County playoff football for Lynbrook and East Rockaway, but whether or not either can make a jump into the top four of their respective conferences and host a first-round game next week will be determined this weekend.

Lynbrook, with a roster predominantly comprised of juniors, punched its ticket to the Conference III playoffs with a runaway 43-0 homecoming victory over Division last Saturday afternoon as senior Michael Hendrickson ran for 116 yards and two scores.

Junior heavy East Rockaway, meanwhile, joined Lynbrook (4-3) on the plus side of .500 by defeating Valley Stream South on the road in Conference IV, 42-22, with juniors Conor O’Hagan (three touchdowns) and Anthony Grimaldi (two) and senior Lucas Cortazar (161 yards rushing) leading the way. Senior quarterback Frank Passanisi added a touchdown run and intercepted his counterpart.

“There’s one week left and lot can still happen,” said Lynbrook head coach Dave Yaker, whose squad closes the regular season against two-time defending county champion Plainedge at home at Marion Street Elementary at 2 p.m. “We’re a young team and we’ve accomplished some good things and there’s a chance we can find ourselves in the four versus five seed game.”

South Side could be the Owls’ semifinal opponent should both teams advance to Hofstra. Lynbrook played the Cyclones tough in an Oct. 20 road loss, 33-20.

“South Side is big, fast and physical,” Yaker said. “We like our offense. It’s very balanced and we tried our best to keep them off-guard. We just made some mistakes at crucial times to keep two of their scoring drives alive.”

Senior Amah Agwu caught a pair of touchdown passes from senior quarterback Maxson Weiss, who was handed the keys to the offense in late September. Weiss has 6 touchdown passes on the year. Seniors Michael Hendrickson (836 yards rushing, 12 total touchdowns) and Ramon Calderon (5486 total yards, 9 touchdowns) are also leading an offense with just two seniors (Nicholas Strippoli and John DiFiore) on the starting line.

Junior Frank Sirufo, another starting lineman, has 7 sacks to lead the defense in that category. Calderon and fellow senior Sebastian Ibanez are Lynbrook’s leading tacklers.

East Rockaway, which closes the regular season Friday night at home versus Seaford at 6 p.m., is riding a three-game win streak with the highlight of the year so far coming in Week 6.

The Rocks went to Locust Valley and pulled off a dramatic 22-21 last-minute victory. Grimaldi busted outside for a 20-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to pull the visitors within a point. Then, Cortazar capped a huge afternoon with the winning two-point conversion. Cortazar had 93 yards and two touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions.

Junior Matt Larin recovered an onside kick to open the second half that led to Cortazar’s second score. Senior William Lewald and recent JV call-up freshman Terry Hayes led the offensive front.

“We’re a young team that’s been playing well and getting better every week,” East Rockaway head coach Russ Pajer said. “We could be as high as the five seed and as low as the seven going into the playoffs.”

O’Hagan, Grimaldi and Cortazar all had touchdowns the previous week as the Rocks knocked off improved Oyster Bay, 22-14.