Wantagh Football Shuts Out Neighborhood Rival Mepham

Entering Saturday's showdown with the undefeated Mepham Pirates, Wantagh Warriors head football coach Tom Casey knew keeping his team in the playoff hunt was more important than bragging rights. As things turned out, he got both.

Wantagh shut out rivals Mepham, 17-0, ending the Pirates' perfect start to Conference II play and keeping the Warriors within touching distance of league-leading Garden City, now the only team without a loss this year.

"I thought we were solid on both sides of the ball," said Coach Casey. "The defense played as well as you could possibly play against a very, very good and well-drilled team that has a high-potent offense.

Wantagh senior Matt Balzano had 19 carries for 67 yards and Brian von Bargan caught 62 yards through the air and intercepted two passes. Quarterback Nick Mullen was 7-for-11 and 93 yards in the victory.

"Offensively, we just focused on a couple plays and tried to cut back on a couple mistakes we make," said Casey.

"They out-executed us and they had a good game plan coming in," said Mepham head coach Anthony Cracco, whose team managed just 37 yards of total offense against the Warriors. "The kids played hard and the Wantagh staff did a good job of getting them ready."

The Warriors (3-1) took the lead with 6:35 left in the first half on Andrew Martorella's 27-yard field goal. It capped off a strong drive that featured a pair of fourth-down conversions and took almost six minutes off the clock.

Wantagh added to its lead midway through the third quarter. An 18-yard pass interference penalty at the Mepham 34 helped Wantagh move the chains on 3rd-and-9, and Shaun Charkowick completed the seven-play drive by busting the ball home from the one-yard line.

Sophomore linebacker Peter Brasile recovered a Mepham fumble on the first play of the following drive to give the Warriors great starting position at the Pirates' 34, but juniors Matt Castevelli and Joe Aliberti forced Wantagh to turn the ball over on downs by sacking quarterback Nick Mullen on 4th-and-16.

Hopes of a comeback were dealt another shattering blow almost immediately, however, when A.J. Heller's pass was picked off by von Bargen just 48 seconds later, bring the third quarter to a close.

Wantagh put the game away when Joe Giardina ran six yards for a touchdown with 5:42 remaining for a 17-0 lead.

"We didn't play well the entire game," said Coach Cracco. "We couldn't move the ball offensively and we played too much defense which wore us down. It's just something we have to learn from and build on."

Both teams are back in action Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Wantagh will travel to Carey (3-1) while Mepham will look to get back on track when they host Herricks (1-3).