For the first time in nearly two years, Garden City’s football team got punched in the mouth.
The Trojans were forced to punt on their opening drive of the season and on Long Beach’s second offensive play, Charlie Conway found Zack Silva deep down the field for a 75-yard touchdown pass.
It can be hard for a team that has been so dominant for so long to recover from that series of events. But the team that has been the class of Long Island football for more than a decade showed its championship mettle.
Brayden Robertiello completed 5 of 6 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns and added nine carries for 87 yards and a TD to lead the Trojans to a 31-16 win in a Nassau Conference II opener Saturday at Long Beach Middle School.
Garden City extended its Long Island record winning streak to 55 games.
“Very happy with the way our guys answered that start,” coach Dave Ettinger said. “We have a lot of new guys out there, so it was a good first experience for them.”
Following Silva’s long TD catch, Garden City faced a 3rd-and-8 in its own territory. Robertiello faked a swing pass to his right, turned to his left and dumped a screen pass to Merit Ruckh, who followed his blockers and raced down the left sideline for a 73-yard touchdown.
On the Trojans’ opening drive, Robertiello threw a swing pass to running back Anthony Asaro, which Long Beach’s Timothy Miller sniffed out for a loss of a yard.
“We struggled with that play a little bit in preseason, but we really got it down and I was pumped when [Ettinger] called it because I knew it was gonna work right off the bat,” Robertiello said.
Long Beach answered Ruckh’s TD with a 10-play drive that culminated in a 31-yard field goal by Nick Amantea to give the Marines a 10-7 lead with 9:20 left in the first half.
It was all Trojans from there.
Garden City put together a 10-play, 84-yard drive that ended with Chris Desiderio making a leaping catch over a defender in the end zone for a 24-yard TD grab. Desiderio had a quick celebration with his teammates, took his gloves off and lined up to kick the PAT.
“This is my first year playing any position besides kicker,” Desiderio said. “I caught it, started celebrating and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to go kick an extra point now.”
Owen Andersen intercepted a pass on Long Beach’s ensuing drive to set the Trojans up on the Marines’ 13. Two plays later, Angelo Cupani punched in a 1-yard TD to give Garden City a 21-10 halftime lead.
After Desiderio made a 36-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter, the Trojans’ defense forced a punt and Robertiello took the second play of the ensuing drive 59 yards for a TD to give the Trojans a 31-10 lead with 9:46 left.
Jake Brown had two sacks for the Trojans, who have won nine straight Nassau titles and four consecutive Long Island championships. Their last loss came against Lindenhurst on Nov. 30, 2019.
Conway threw for 269 yards and a TD and Silva caught eight passes for 178 yards and a score for Long Beach. When the Marines last played Garden City on Sept. 14, 2023, they scored the first touchdown in a 36-7 loss.
“We were happy with the effort,” Long Beach coach Scott Martin said. “We felt like they had a few extra chess piece moves than us… They outplayed us in those moves and hopefully, we get to see them again.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
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