Seaford Football Rolls to Nassau County Title Game

Those in attendance Saturday night at Hofstra University's Shuart Stadium got a taste of something that Nassau County Conference IV schools have gotten to know all too well in recent years -- the grind em up, toss em out wrecking train known as Seaford football.

It took only a couple of ticks of the game clock or so before the Vikings demonstrated why they're undefeated this year and haven't lost to a Nassau County team in a couple seasons. Seaford (10-0) struck pay dirt three times in the first half, while holding its opponent du jour North Shore to negative yardage. The second half was more of the same, and by the end of the game, the Vikings sat atop an imbalanced 35-0 romp on Hofstra's field turf to move to the Nassau Countuy Conference IV title game against Roosevelt.

The statistics are impressive -- 20 first downs and 346 total offensive yards. 124 yards on 19 carries for running back Justin Buckley (three touchdowns), closely followed by Travis Langan with 92 yards and a touchdown. John Troisi chipped in 55 yards on the ground too, and starting quarterback Joe Kirincic had a couple of carries for 17 yards.

Want more? In the fourth quarter, running back Ryan Metas picked up 43 yards behind Chris Trotta, setting up a touchdown run of seven yards for Eddie Schaller.  Or how about this -- time of possession for Seaford 15:15, compared to North Shore's 8:45.

It's enough to make coaches on the other side of the football field reach for the Gatorade.

The scoring came early for Seaford, as Langan bulled his way into the end zone on a 15 yarder in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Buckley scored the first of his three touchdowns on the day, and after Langan recorded a sack on North Shore's next possession, promptly drove 46 yards on nine plays, culminating in an 18-yard draw play to Buckley.

In the third quarter, Seaford scored again when, after a 52-yard punt put North Shore in a deep hole, Greg Kolodinsky blocked a punt and the Vikings offense took over at the three-yard line. True to form, the handoff went to Buckley, who jumped into the end zone for his third touchdown of the day and the 28-0 lead.

After that, the end was plain to see for both squads. North Shore mounted its only decent drive of the evening to end the third quarter and open the fourth, but saw any chance of getting on the board throttled when their offense ran out of gas at the Seaford 17 yard line.

It remained for Trotta and a crew of running backs -- Troisi and Buckley to start, but increasingly backs Metas, Schaller and Victor Belgiorno, to grind out a final touchdown drive -- 82 yards on 16 plays, eating up most of the game clock and putting a ribbon on Seaford's ticket to the county finals.

Seaford's aim at at a Nassau County title kicks off against Roosevelt at 4 p.m. Saturday at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium.