V.S. North sends Seaford packing

Making its first playoff appearance since 2007, Valley Stream North sent shockwaves throughout Nassau County last Saturday with its 21-16 upset of four-time defending Nassau Conference IV champion Seaford.

The fifth-seeded Spartans, minus star senior running back Evan Henry, held on when senior Ed Dietrich and junior Bill Patsos tackled Nick Fischetti less than a yard short of the end zone with 1:20 remaining.

“What a thrill,” Valley Stream North head coach Tom Schiavo said. “The only ones who believed we can do it were our kids and coaches and the fans behind us. Seaford’s an awesome program and our guys stepped up time after time to make this happen.”

Patsos and senior Jesse Oppenheimer caught touchdown passes from junior quarterback Anthony Martelli, and Patsos added 52 yards and a score on the ground as the Spartans (7-2) advanced to meet No. 2 Roosevelt in Thursday’s semifinals at Hofstra. Senior Kendel Levy (15) and junior Joe White combined for 26 tackles, and juniors James Capoziello and Stephen Giuliante had interceptions.

“There’s still a lot of mountain to climb,” Schiavo said. “We’re happy to get another opportunity to play Roosevelt again. A lot of things didn’t go our way the first time.”

North, which fell 61-36 to the Rough Riders in Week 2, exploded out of the gate with a non-league win over Nazareth (Brooklyn) and features one of the highest-scoring offenses on Long Island. But the linchpin of the success, Henry, who had 1,473 yards rushing and 27 total touchdowns in eight regular-season games, broke his leg in a Week 8 win at Oyster Bay and underwent surgery last Friday.

“The kids care about Evan so much and respected what he did this year so much, they wanted to do whatever they could to pick up the slack,” Schiavo said. “We needed a total team effort and that’s what we got. We didn’t have a big day running the ball, but we got some tough yards against a very strong defense and Martelli had a nice day throwing.”