Bruised. Battered. It didn’t matter.
Missing two of its top stars, the Garden City football team relied on a bevy of players to shoulder the load in the Nassau Conference II championship game.
Facing third-and-9, Angelo Cupani took a toss to the right and looked like he was heading for the sideline. The senior bounced off a tackler, spun back inside and carried a pile of defenders into the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown with 56 seconds left for the final score of the top-seeded Trojans’ 27-12 win over No. 3 Long Beach Saturday afternoon at Hofstra.
“I saw the sideline and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to cut it up,’” Cupani said. “I had all these guys on my legs and I just kept my feet moving, scored the touchdown and celebrated with my guys. At that point, we pretty much knew it was over.”
Max Siragusa hauled in an interception on Long Beach’s ensuing drive to seal Garden City’s 10th straight Nassau title and 30th overall. The Trojans extended their New York State-record winning streak to 65 games.
Garden City (11-0) will face the winner of Half Hollow Hills East/East Islip in the Long Island championship game at noon next Saturday at Stony Brook University.
Star running back Anthony Asaro suffered an ankle injury in Garden City’s semifinal win over East Meadow and was ruled out for Saturday’s game.
Merit Ruckh took Asaro’s place as the Trojans’ primary ballcarrier. He helped Garden City move the ball on its methodical opening drive, which ended in a 12-yard TD run by quarterback Brayden Robertiello.
On the first play of Garden City’s second drive, Robertiello faked a handoff, rolled right and threw a screen pass across the field to Ruckh, who had linemen Thomas Bacich, Jake Brown and Zach Olson in front of him.
“I ran behind my linemen and when I got to the open field, I did my thing,” Ruckh said. “I saw the end zone and I said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get stopped.’”
Ruckh cut back to the middle of the field and followed a block from receiver Chris Desiderio for a 73-yard touchdown to give the Trojans a 13-0 lead with 11:35 left in the second quarter.
Robertiello exited the game, grabbing at his lower right leg later in the quarter after being tackled out of bounds.
Brendan Benn stepped in at QB and the Trojans continued their march down the field. Benn handed to Ruckh, who pitched the ball to Desiderio on a double reverse for a 9-yard TD run to give Garden City a 20-6 lead with 37 seconds left in the first half.
Before the end of the drive, Robertiello had his helmet on and appeared to be ready to re-enter the game. He didn’t play the rest of the game.
“He told me he was ready to play, but we just didn’t think it was the smart thing to do with where the game was at,” coach Dave Ettinger said.
Zack Silva caught two touchdown passes from Charlie Conway for Long Beach, including an 8-yard score with 6:12 left in the fourth quarter. Brown sacked Conway on the Marines’ two-point try, keeping the score at 20-12.
Then Ruckh, Owen Andersen and Chase Kraus marched the Trojans down the field before Cupani’s touchdown capped the 11-play, 82-yard drive that spanned 5:16.
Long Beach finished the season 8-3 and reached the county final for the first time in 39 years.
“We knew it would be a four-quarter game,” Cupani said. “We’ve been saying all week that Long Beach is the team that would give us the hardest time.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
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