Carey tops Elmont, earns No. 1 seed

Carey put an exclamation point on its first undefeated regular season in 32 years and secured the No. 1 playoff seed in Nassau Conference II with a convincing 43-13 victory over rival Elmont last Saturday.

Junior Juliano Bove rushed for a pair of touchdowns, returned a kickoff for a score and caught one of senior quarterback Kyle Zahradka’s three touchdown passes to lead the host Seahawks, who take a perfect 8-0 mark into this Saturday’s first-round playoff game against No. 8 Westbury at 3 p.m.

“We’ve got a selfless group of kids and they all operate without an ego,” Carey coach Mike Stanley said. “We’ve been solid all year. If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll be fine.”

Elmont (5-3), which got a pair of touchdown runs from junior Rahquan Scott, held the No. 4 seed despite the loss and hosts No. 5 Mepham on Saturday.

“We couldn’t cover anyone,” Spartans coach Jay Hegi said. “Our secondary was picked apart. Receivers were wide open and their quarterback was dead-on target. Hopefully we see them in the playoffs and do a better job.”

Working behind an offensive line consisting of twin brother Drew at center, senior Craig Samson and junior Peter Nicholls at tackle, and sophomores Matt Lucito and Sean Nagy at guard, Zahradka completed 10 of 16 attempts for 239 yards and broke his older brother Luke’s record for passing yards in a single season. Kyle has 1,276 and counting. In addition to Bove (43 yards), he connected with juniors Jesse Milonas (72) and Stephen Marino (19) for touchdowns.

“We’ve almost had a different attack each week,” Stanley said. “The past three weeks, teams put six or seven guys in the box to take away Zorn [Rob] and the rest of our running game. Kyle has come through with three big passing games, and we feel really good about our balance.”

Hegi said Bove’s 91-yard kickoff return in the second quarter was a momentum-changing play. Elmont had just closed the gap to 14-7 on an explosive 47-yard run by Scott when Bove cut across the field on the way to taking the ensuing kickoff the distance. “It was deflating,” Hegi said. “They answered right away, and once we didn’t answer back right away it was tough.”

An interception by junior Rob Miotto set up Carey’s fourth touchdown, a 1-yard plunge by Bove, and the Seahawks held a 35-13 halftime lead after Bove and Scott traded scores.

Elmont was held scoreless in the second half for the third time this season. Senior running back Jaquan Smith, who had three touchdowns in a Week 7 win over Long Beach, played just a handful of snaps but Hegi said he expected the Spartans to be at full speed against Mepham.

“We usually bounce back from a bad game,” said Hegi, “but Mepham poses a threat. The coaches over there do a nice job.”

If Carey and Elmont both win this weekend, they’ll likely meet in a semifinal playoff game at Hofstra on Nov. 13.