Thursday, October 1, 2026
Thirteen yards. That’s how close the South Side football team was to reaching the Nassau Conference III final, from competing for a third county championship in school history.
The second-seeded Cyclones instead met in the Hofstra end zone for a final time this season following an 18-15 loss to third-seeded Bethpage Sunday night at Shuart Stadium.
“Our team has figured out ways all year long to put the ball in the end zone,” South Side head coach Phil Onesto said. “It’s just one of those things, a couple of inches here or there, and that decides the game.”
Bethpage advances to meet fourth-seeded Wantagh in the county championship this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. back at Hofstra. The Warriors edged top-seeded Carey, 21-14, in the other semifinal.
“All four teams that were playing in our conference had a shot to be the champions at the end of the day, two close games we had,” Onesto said. “Bethpage is a great team, we knew that going in, we knew it was going to be a nail-biter, and that’s what it was. No shame in losing to a good team.”
Connor McNulty connected with Kieran Vetter for a 31-yard touchdown to give the Cyclones a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Bethpage running back Chase Solliday (16 carries, 163 yards) responded with a pair of touchdown runs in the second quarter to put the Golden Eagles up 12-7 before Vetter beat Bethpage’s Liam Farrell to a jump ball at the 9-yard line and ran in for a 24-yard touchdown. McNulty connected with AJ Magaraci on the 2-point conversion to give South Side a 15-12 lead with 1.1 seconds left in the first half.
The Cyclones had a chance to extend that lead, but James LiPetri intercepted McNulty at the 13-yard line with 8:22 left in the third quarter.
Bethpage (9-1) then marched 77 yards in nine plays, capped by Solliday’s third touchdown run, a 6-yard score, to give the Golden Eagles an 18-15 lead with 3:50 left in the third quarter.
South Side (7-3) made big plays in the fourth quarter — Vetter forced and recovered a fumble at the Bethpage 44-yard line with 7:01 left, and Magaraci had a big fourth-down conversion to again get the Cyclones to the 13-yard line.
But on 4th-and-5 from the 15-yard line with 52 seconds left, Bethpage’s Vincent Morice came up with his team’s third pick of the game to close out the game.
“I thought we had a great game plan on offense, defense, and special teams,” Onesto said. “It’s just a couple of missed opportunities here and there. But as far as the effort, it was across the board. All our guys played their hearts out.”
