Clarke avenges playoff loss to W.H.

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Denied a trip to the Nassau Conference IV football semifinals at Hofstra last fall, courtesy of a first-round playoff upset loss to West Hempstead, it’s still a fresh wound that resonates at Clarke.

Last Saturday afternoon, Lucas Abbatiello helped make sure it got some level of revenge in the battle of Rams. The senior tailback had a pair of long touchdowns and four successful two-point conversions in the opening quarter alone to set the tone in Clarke’s 42-21 home victory. Abbatiello gained 162 yards in the first 10 minutes and spent the second half catching some rays on the sideline.

“We didn’t talk about last year’s playoff loss too much during the week, but it was a topic [Friday] yesterday,” Clarke head coach Tim O’Malley said. “We’ve got a special senior group. They love football and are invested in everything we do.”

West Hempstead (1-2) was coming off a thrilling 38-36 win over Oyster Bay that saw its backup quarterback, senior Sal Galan, go down with an ankle injury a week after starting signal-caller Peter Theodoratos, a junior, hurt his shoulder in a Week 1 defeat to Friends Academy. Head coach Dom Carre used senior Brandon Musallam in the first half and junior Brian Pierre-Louis in the second half against Clarke. “It’s not a good situation but it’s not the reason we lost today,” Carre said of the quarterback situation. “We’re such a young team. We’ve got 30 kids and only three of them came into the season with any varsity experience.

“We’re doing a lot of teaching for next year with an eye on this year,” he added. “The rest of our schedule is tough.”

Clarke (2-1) scored on the third play of the game when Abbatiello took a short toss from senior quarterback Chris Giardino and broke outside for a 58-yard touchdown. His first of four straight two-point runs made it 8-0. “We have an All-County type of offensive line,” said Abbatiello, who worked behind a front five consisting of seniors Chris Perez, Mike heavy, Jack Layburn, Chris Stokum and junior Anthony Rodriguez. “We want to go as far as we can,” he added.

Two takeaways by the defense led to the next two scores as the advantage swelled to 24-0 midway through the quarter. An interception by senior Ian Grant at the West Hempstead 30 led to junior Mike Forte’s 3-yard touchdown plunge, and a fumble recovery by senior Nick Campagnuolo set the stage for Giardino’s 59-yard touchdown pass to senior Brian Sullivan. Abbatiello’s 83-yard touchdown run capped the early fireworks.

Junior Joe Dieppa’s 1-yard scoring run gave Clarke a 39-0 halftime lead. West Hempstead, which beat Oyster Bay on junior Anthony Rivera’s 22-yard field goal in the waning seconds, scored the game’s last 21 points on a pair of touchdown runs from sophomore Petros Adikimenakis and one from junior Sean Simonson.

The first half of the regular season concludes this weekend. West Hempstead is home against East Rockaway on Friday night at 6:30, while Clarke travels to Carle Place on Saturday for a 3 p.m. kickoff.