Wantagh Football Tops Carle Place/Wheatley In Rain Soaked Road Match-Up

The Wantagh football team avenged their first loss of the season last week with a 28-8 win on the road against Carle Place/Wheatley (1-2) on Friday night.

Wantagh (2-1) scored 20 points in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. The Wild Frogs struggled in finding much success by using an option running game against the visiting Warriors along with battling rain for the extent of four quarters.

“For the first two games of the season, we didn’t establish the line of scrimmage and you have to be able to run the football,” said Wantagh head coach Tom Casey. “Knowing that the weather was going to be the way it was, we knew putting the ball up was not going to be something we could work with.”

Wantagh running back Matt Balzano opened the scoring with a first quarter run for three yards to put his team ahead 8-0. 

After a scoreless second quarter, Joe Giardina added to the lead with an 11-yard run followed by a 72-yard run by Peter Brasile to make the score 22-0. 

Before the end of the third, Brian von Bargen intercepted and returned a Jimmy Baxter pass 40 yards to extend the lead to 28-0. Carle Place/Wheatley running back Patrick Shaw scored on a 48-yard run to cap the scoring at 28-8 in favor of Wantagh.

Eight backs combined for 300 yards for Wantagh. Shaun Charkowick led the defense with 13 tackles and Cody Cornacchio added 12 in the win.

“We had to play four quarters against them, and I think we did that this time,” added Casey.

Wantagh will play next be in action against undefeated Mepham (3-0) at home this Saturday with a 3 p.m. kickoff.