Oceanside rallies to beat Baldwin

Oceanside took the field in its opening-round playoff game last Saturday afternoon as the most prolific scoring team in the county at 40 points per game. And on paper, its opponent No. 8 Baldwin figured to be no match for the top-seeded Sailors.

But games aren’t played on paper, and this Baldwin team was very different from the one that Oceanside beat 43-13 in Week 6. The survive-and-advance adage is usually reserved for the NCAA’s March Madness, but it certainly applied in the Sailors postseason opener.

Oceanside erased a seven-point deficit by scoring twice in the final quarter, and then held off visiting Baldwin’s frantic final drive to escape with a 14-7 victory in an intense Nassau Conference I quarterfinal matchup. 

Senior Derek Cruz’s 80-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes to play gave the Sailors the win. Cruz rushed for 130 yards on 17 carries. Oceanside, which improved to 9-0, will face No. 4 Farmingdale on this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Hofstra.

“I honestly don’t know how we got through this,” Oceanside head coach Rob Blount said. “We played our worst game of the season by far, and Baldwin played outstanding. They were well-prepared and threw some things at us that we hadn’t seen before. Some of our veterans made big-time plays when we needed it most.”

The Bruins put together a defensive scheme designed to slow down Long Island’s most lethal passing attack. By doubling senior wideout Jake Lazzaro and dropping five others into coverage, Baldwin was able to do just that. The Sailors, who came in averaging 290 passing yards per game, were held to just 53 yards through the air.

The Bruins scored the only points of the first three quarters when the home team’s failure to execute on special teams gave Baldwin the ball deep in Oceanside territory in the second quarter. Eric Manigult took it in from a yard out to give the Bruins a 7-0 lead.

The Sailors finally found the end zone when Cruz hit junior wide receiver Bernie Diaz for a 10-yard touchdown reception that tied the game at 7-7 early in the final quarter.

Cruz, who broke the school-record for receptions in a season when he corralled his 56th catch of the year, gave Oceanside and its fans a chance to breathe a little easier with his long scamper, and an interception by Diaz appeared to put the game on ice, but the waning moments were nothing short of frenetic.

The Bruins blocked a field-goal attempt with 45 seconds to play and quickly advanced the ball to the Oceanside 20-yard line on a long pass play. But, junior Eddie Mannone’s clutch sack with five seconds remaining sewed things up.

Blount believes one player was a difference-maker. “Cruz is the reason we’re going to Hofstra,” Blount said. “He plays running back, quarterback, defensive back, he punts; he does everything for us. He is our MVP without a doubt, and he played like it today.”