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Mostly Cloudy Cyclones roll to Homecoming win
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South Side freshman
Eric Willie plows forward for some of his 92 yards in last Saturday's 27-7 Conference III
win over West Hempstead.
Janette Pellegrini/Herald
In a football season where more has gone wrong than right, South Side made the most of a dreary Homecoming day by rolling to a 27-7 Conference III victory over West Hempstead last Saturday.
The Cyclones, who snapped a five-game slide, scored twice on the ground, once through the air and once on special teams.
“I thought we played well and showed what we can do when we play all 48 minutes,” South Side coach Paul Mastronardi said. “The kids were focused all week in practice. It was important to them to win Homecoming, and I was really happy about getting each of them into the game.”
South Side (2-5) got on the board early when the Rams (0-7) defense bit on a play action pass. Junior quarterback James Howard hooked up with senior Tom McGrath for a 43-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead. It stayed that way until midway through the second quarter when the Cyclones struck again. Freshman tailback Eric Willie, who had 92 yards on 16 carries, rumbled for a 30-yard touchdown and senior Gavin Ahern added the two-point conversion run to make it 14-0.
“Eric had a nice touchdown run last week against Plainedge and another one today,” Mastronardi said. “He’s a talent and we’ll expect a lot of things from him in the years to come.”
West Hempstead’s offense had trouble moving the ball throughout the day against a South Side defense led by senior Dillon Scaduto (10 tackles, three sacks), sophomore Zach Scaduto (seven tackles, one interception) and senior Tim Leck (five tackles, one interception). Any momentum the Rams were hoping to achieve over the last two quarters was squashed within 15 seconds as senior Tim Coleman returned the kickoff to open the second half 90 yards for a touchdown.
Already leading 21-0, the Cyclones increased their lead on their first offensive possession of the third quarter when Dillon Scaduto ripped off a 61-yard touchdown run. “Dillon had a strong game on both sides of the ball,” Mastronardi said.
The Rams avoided the shutout when Kyle Pacheco scored on a 30-yard run in the fourth quarter. South Side freshman defensive end Tysheen Cox made the most of his playing time down the stretch and came up with five tackles.
The solid defensive effort on a soggy field was a carry over from the second half of the Cyclones’ 33-13 defeat at Plainedge on Oct. 17. The Red Devils scored all of their points in the first half, including three touchdowns of 35 yards or more. “They got a lot of big plays on us early,” said Mastronardi, “but we were able to shut them out in the second half and take something positive from the game.”
Mastronardi’s first season at the helm will conclude this Saturday when Lawrence visits South Side for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff. The Golden Tornadoes (5-2), who rank atop the county in scoring offense at 40.8 points per game, were beaten last week by Plainedge.
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