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By Steven Zaitz

They waited almost 500 days to play a football game. They are now going to wait longer than expected to play the next one.

The Northport Tigers opened their spring season this past Saturday by blanking the Connetquot
Thunderbirds, 26-0. However, two Tiger players tested positive for the coronavirus following the
game and the entire team will be quarantined until at least March 24, postponing this week’s
matchup against rivals Half Hollow Hills East.

The Tigers are trying to stay positive, enjoy the win and hope for the best during the 10 day in-
person shutdown of the program.

“It was a great win,” said an emotionally mixed Head Coach Pat Campbell. “I told the guys that
we have to celebrate this win and appreciate it because nobody knows what the future holds.”

Yes, the immediate future of the team has a large font-sized question mark above its collective
head, but the present says they have a record of 1-0 after their thumping of the Thunderbirds.
The Tigers are looking at this early season pause philosophically.

“I talked to the kids and the message is not to lose your faith, look out for each other and we’ll
get back out there in short order,” Campbell said. “We’re going to meet virtually, and I have a lot
of trust in this team. We’re going to stay ‘together’ apart.”

On this autumnal day in March, they did more than stay together. They obliterated Connetquot
starting right from the opening whistle. The Tigers played a stifling brand of defense, allowing
the T-Birds 84 total yards and zero trips into the red zone. Northport linebacker Anthony
Canales was a human game plan wrecker as he had 13 tackles and a quarterback sack.

“That was the first real sack of my career,” Canales said. “It felt great.”

The senior and future Alfred University Saxon, who also had a forced fumble and three tackles for
loss, admits he might have had an extra bit of motivation on this day. Newsday’s list of Top 100
High School Football Players on Long Island was published the day before the game and
Connetquot’s Will Immel and Vncent Canatia were both on the list. There were no Tigers on it.

“I guess they forgot us this year,” said the jovial Canales. “I feel like we have a few players on
this team who could have made that list, but it’s only a list. At the end of the day, who really
cares. It’s cool to prove people wrong.”

Coach Campbell joked that he’s going to start calling his players 101, 102, 103 and 104.

On offense, the Tigers used an inside-outside running game and racked up an eye-popping 377
yards rushing. Rafe Carner led the way with 102 on the ground, and Andrew Argyris had three
blunt force touchdowns from in close. Jack Sandrib steamrolled his way to 95 yards on only six
carries, and Rocco Stola had 94 yards on seven carries. Stola, who plays defense and special teams as
well (i.e., he never comes off the field) was able to use his speed to out-flank the T-Bird defense
on sweeps.

“I’ve got to give credit to the blocking upfront,” said the modest Stola. “We have been working
really hard, in drills and in meetings, even from last year when a lot of things didn’t go our way.
But today, our offensive line was great. Our defense was amazing. I think all phases today
showed that Northport is ready to make a difference after all this time away from football.”

In 2019, the Tigers were ravaged by injuries, had a 2-6 season and missed the playoffs for the
first time in a decade.

“Last year [2019] we had a different kind of epidemic and it was injuries,” lamented Campbell.
“We had 22 separate injuries, many of which were season ending. We went through five
quarterbacks and by the time we got to the last game of the year, we were on our sixth.”

This year’s signal caller, senior Conner Gallagher, had a quiet game, completing half of his eight
pass attempts for 40 yards, but Campbell felt he did a fine job leading the offense.

“Conner looked good on the tape I saw,” Campbell said. “He’s going to be called upon to make
some big throws for us this year. But today, we were able to run it effectively.”

Looking at tape and holding virtual meetings are what the team is relegated to for the next week
and a half, but the coach is already planning on how to make best use of that time as they still
plan to play Huntington on March 27.

“It’s going to be hard, but I think it’s important to keep the routine and schedule and devote the
time to football that we planned on,” Campbell said. “As far as staying in shape physically, that’s
up to each kid being accountable for himself. The kids are in charge of the culture on this team,
and we have many great leaders. I have confidence in our leaders to be able to rally them up and
we’ll step up to this challenge as a team.”

Just another 10-day challenge; for Northport football, they can add that to the five hundred that
came before.