By Mike Schnitzel
"We came out overconfident," said South senior running back Dave Matthew. "We had a mentality that we beat them the first time, we could do it again and that just wasn't true."
The Rough Riders offense was lead by senior tailback Michael Mayo, who ran for two touchdowns on the day, carrying the ball 15 times for 243 yards. Mayo, who also had an interception during the game, opened up the scoring for Roosevelt with a 65-yard touchdown run. After being stopped by Falcons linebacker Dennis Ottochian at the Roosevelt 35-yard line, Mayo cut left and then right, breaking a tackle as he penetrated South's defensive line to run 65 yards for the first touchdown of the game.
"That touchdown really ended the game," said Matthew. "After that, a lot of our guys didn't really seem to be trying."
Rough Riders senior fullback Lerone Bryce scored two touchdowns in the second quarter, his first after a Mayo interception and 40-yard return to the Falcons 2-yard line. Bryce was handed the ball and bulled through the Falcons defensive line to put Roosevelt up 13-0. Later in the quarter, a 1-yard run by Bryce followed by a 2-point conversion on a quarterback sneak by Mychael Hardamon led to a 21-0 Roosevelt halftime lead.
"We came out all-fired up and had some good hits at the beginning, but too many penalties and little mistakes killed us," said South quarterback Bryant Amitrano.
On Roosevelt's first possession of the third quarter, Mayo scored his second, and Roosevelt's final, touchdown of the day on a 73-yard run.
Roosevelt will now face Cold Spring Harbor in the Conference IV championship game at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Hofstra.
Despite the disappointment of the loss, Amitrano felt that the Falcons had a tremendous year.
"This year was the best year we've ever had and I've been on varsity since ninth-grade," said Amitrano. "We accomplished a lot this year."
