On a rainy Saturday at Longwood High School, the varsity football team was not going to let some bad weather get in the way of a homecoming victory as the Lions would snatch victory from the clutches of defeat in a 20-19 thriller against the Commack Cougars.
A win like this is one that will be fondly remembered by the people who were in attendance during a miserable day weather-wise but it was looking disastrous early on for the home team.
Early on, the ball was not bouncing in favor of the Lions as Commack's pass-oriented offense looked like it was not affected one bit by the weather as Jeremy Weiss marched the Cougars down the field with some impressive throws and found receiver Andrew Riggs early and often in the first half.
The first drive ended in a Commack touchdown as Riggs caught a pass from Weiss in the middle of the field and he willed his way across the goal line for a 24-yard score. This put the Cougars up 7-0 before Longwood even got a chance to even have one offensive snap.
The Lions first drive was one to forget as penalties erased a nice drive that had them just outside the red zone and they were forced to punt after a long, counterproductive offensive possession.
The Lions Defense would force a Commack punt on their next drive and they would march down the field thanks to their potent rush attack. This was when fullback Vinny Rosario got his first rushing touchdown of his varsity career as he powered his way through the Commack defense for a game tying touchdown.
After that score by Rosario, Commack’s passing attack took over as Weiss would connect with Riggs once again for a 30-yard touchdown and a Jackson Pellegrino rushing touchdown put the Cougars up 19-7 at halftime.
The Lions would come out of the half and they seemed to figure out how to shut down Commack’s high flying passing attack.
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| Davieon Benjamin-Sheffey carrying the ball. @Tim_Asbell | Instagram |
Davien Benjamin-Sheffley was also someone Longwood would lean on late in this contest as he would score a crucial 15-yard rushing touchdown to cut the lead to 19-13 in favor of Commack.
As the rain continued to come down and the wind continued to howl with gusts exceeding 40 miles per hour, the Longwood rushing attack would take over as they would methodically move down the field and take time off the clock while advancing the ball deep into Commack territory.
This is when Benjamin-Sheffley continued his career day as he pushed his way forward on a goal to go run for a game tying touchdown rush with a minute to go in the third quarter to make it 19-19.
Longwood’s kicker Daniel Blank would line up with the potential go-ahead extra point and the odds of making this kick seemed very small as the weather was not letting up.
Blank would end up draining the extra point to give the Lions the one point advantage. The rest of the game consisted of big defensive stands, leading to Longwood surviving the day and taking a 20-19 victory over the Commack Cougars.