The Wantagh football team hung tough for a half with first place Garden City Saturday but it was the game's final 24 minutes that doomed the Warriors' upset bid.
Garden City, which defeated Wantagh in last year's Nassau County Conference II title game, outscored the Warriors 7-0 in the second half en route to a 31-14 win during the school's annual Homecoming Game. The loss to the unbeaten Trojans (7-0) drops the Warriors to 5-2 with one regular season game remaining.
Wantagh scored first on a punt return by Brandon Watson in the opening minutes of the game. Garden City would score on the next drive with a touchdown by junior running back Tim McDonagh. The two teams would trade scores to end the first half at a 14-14 tie.
The momentum would swing to Garden City early in the third quarter with an interception by senior Ed Blatz.
“They kept going at me and had beat me deep once before and that time I just stayed with my man and was able to beat him to the ball,” Blatz said.
Blatz himself will finish give Garden City the lead with a 14-yard touchdown reception to put the Trojans up 21-14. The passing touchdown was one of four that Trojan quarterback Brett Stewart had on the day.
“He has a great field of vision and always seems to find the open guy,” Blatz said.
Aside from the early turnover, Wantagh did not help themselves with two poor punts that would give Garden City excellent field possession and would each lead to a Trojan touchdown.
“We were with them,” Wantagh head coach Keith Sachs said. “We had that big turnover in the third and special teams hurt us with the punts and we could not overcome the field position we gave them.”
Despite the loss the Warrior head coach still believes highly in his team as they close out the regular season on the road next week against Long Beach at 1:30 p.m.
“I’m not worried,” Sachs said. “We will get to play everyone again in the playoffs.”
