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By Steven Zaitz

Have you ever gotten gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe? 

It’s nearly impossible to get rid of.

The Smithtown West football team simply would not allow itself to be removed from its opening game against the Northport Tigers on Friday night, Sept. 9, as they battled back from multiple double-digit deficits against the heavily favored visitors.

However, the Bulls fell one bullet short, and Northport’s star quarterback, Owen Johansen, put the game away with a long run that gave the Tigers a first down in the final minute and allowed them to escape Smithtown with a 34-30 win.

The contest’s opening few possessions didn’t give off any signs it would be a close game. The Bulls went backwards on their first offensive possession and after a three and out, punted to Northport and their versatile weapon “Every-Down” Emmett Radziul, who took the kick 31 yards deep into Bulls territory. Radziul would also have an interception in the second half.

Three plays after Emmett’s punt return, Tiger tight end Andrew Miller pranced into the end zone with a 21-yard touchdown catch, one of Miller’s two touchdowns in the first quarter. When running back Andrew DeMarco plunged in from the two-yard line midway through the second quarter, Northport took a 20-3 lead.

“It felt amazing to score my first varsity touchdown,” Demarco said. “The offensive line definitely played great tonight.”

The Tigers rushed for 230 yards for the game and with five minutes to go in the half seemed to have complete control. But as they did in the 2021 regular season finale at Northport, West fought on.

A kickoff return to midfield by wide receiver Tim Vanderbink breathed some life into the Bulls. Their standout quarterback Brayden Stahl calmly hit wide receiver Jacque Lapraire, who got inside position on defense back Christian Raio, and made a toe-tapping, one-handed catch for a 22-yard touchdown and it was 20-9 with 2:30 left in the half. Raio had good coverage, but it was a perfect pass and a great play by Laprarie, capping a 50-yard drive in less than a minute.

After a Northport three and out, the Bulls got the ball back with under two minutes to play at their own 42. After two medium-sized completions, Stahl hit a wide open Jack Melore, who had gotten past everyone and had himself a 25-yard touchdown catch. It was now 20-16 and the home crowd, that up until that point had been reduced to a dull murmur, were shaking the bleachers with delight.

“We can’t let guys run free like that behind our defense,” said Northport Head Coach Pat Campbell.  “I think they have a very underrated team and (Stahl) is a very good quarterback, but defensive breakdowns like that is stuff that we are going to have to clean up. It can’t happen.”

All Suffolk Tiger linebacker and team captain Tim Cleary led the team with six tackles and along with Miller, defensive end Matt Diaz and defensive linemen  Justin Macke and Mason Hecht, put heavy pressure on Stahl from the opening whistle. The senior quarterback for West would finish with 19 for 32 with 267 yards passing and three touchdowns.

“We gave up a few long passes in the second half, but our run defense was great the whole game,” Cleary said. “We’ll polish our coverages in practice this week for sure.” 

The Tigers defense got a respite to start the second half and the offense did a great job in keeping the suddenly smoking hot Stahl seated firmly on the bench. Johansen engineered at 13 play, 64 yard drive which included four 3rd down conversions and was capped off by the first of running back Giancarlo Valenti’s two second half touchdown runs. It put the Tigers ahead 27-16 and chewed up the first six minutes of the third quarter. Northport fans could relax again with a two-score lead, right?

On Northport’s very next possession Johansen, who had 106 yards passing and 98 yards on the ground, had a pass deflect off of Miller’s hands and into the arms of Lapraire and the Bulls again took to the comeback trail. Stahl took over at his own 38, hit four completions in a row and gave the ball to tailback Brian Hope to close the deal, which he did with a four-yard touchdown run off right tackle. With 10:30 remaining it was 27-22 — again a one-score game.

Valenti would answer. After an electrifying quarterback draw by Johansen went for 38 yards, the junior tailback would dart up the middle for his second touchdown in less than 10 minutes. Valenti finished with 91 yards rushing, 22 receiving and 2 TDs. This one put the Tigers up 34-22 and the Bulls were finally toast.

Except they weren’t.

Stahl would hit on a 37-yard bomb that got the ball to the Tiger 12. On the next snap he rolled to his right and threw what looked like a damaging interception into traffic in the end zone. But it was deflected twice and somehow ended up in the belly of Bull running back Nick Briffa for an extremely serendipitous touchdown for Smithtown. It was now 34-30 Northport after Stahl converted a two point try. The pendulum had swung West once again.

But it was Johansen, who made the keynote to Miller on the opening drive, put the final imprint on it as well. On a waggle keeper right, O.J. rumbled down the Northport sidelines for a gain of 26, carrying half the Bull defense on his back for the last 10 yards. The Tigers ran out the clock and finally cleaned the gum off their cleats.

“We need to read our keys on defense a lot better going forward,” said the never-satisfied Campbell. “We can’t let people run down the middle of the field like that, but it’s the first game. We ran the ball for 230 yards, so obviously I’m happy with that, and Owen hit some big time passes early on to Andrew and I think that opened up our running game. We have some work to do for next week.”

Northport will host Half Hollow Hills East for its home opener on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The Thunderbirds beat the Tigers last October, 35-21.