By Steven Zaitz
Demolish, rinse, repeat.
The Northport Tigers football team made Smithtown East its latest victim this past Saturday, as they cruised to a 50-13 road victory in St. James and ran their record to 3-0. The Bulls drop to 2-2.
Senior running back Andrew Argyris rumbled for 139 yards and three touchdowns, leading a rushing attack that gained 376 yards. Junior Jack Sandrib had 89 yards, and senior Rafe Carner had 71 and two scores. This trio averaged over nine and a half yards every time they touched the ball against Smithtown East. The Tigers have averaged 301 rushing yards in their three victories this season.
“Our philosophy is to run it down their throats until they prove they can stop us,” Argyris said. “Our offensive line is nasty, and they open up big holes for us.”
Smithtown East found itself in a nasty situation right from the opening whistle. They won the coin toss but elected to kickoff to the Tigers. Ten plays later, it was 7-0 Northport on Carner’s 3-yard touchdown run. The Bulls fumbled the ensuing kick and Argyris scored on the very next play to make it 14-0 — and Smithtown East’s offense had yet to touch the ball. “It was like an avalanche,” said Northport Head Coach Pat Campbell. “We didn’t give them a chance to breathe because we did a good job of turning their mistakes into early points.”
Northport converted three East turnovers in the first half into 17 points and had a 44-0 lead at halftime. One of those turnovers was an interception by senior cornerback Tom Tini.
“They had a stack on my side of the field, and I read what he [Bulls Quarterback Nick Karika] was trying to do and he threw it right to me,” Tini said. “I’ll take that any day!”
Despite his perfect diagnosis of the play, Tini was kicking himself for not turning the interception into a pick six. “My coaches were busting my [butt] because if I made one cutback, I would have been gone, “Tini said. “It cost me a steak dinner.”
Regardless of Tini having to pay for his meal, the Tiger defense was its usual mauling self. They were responsible for only one of the Bulls’ touchdowns — the other was a 86-yard fumble recovery by East’s Santino Pollina — and have given up only two scores in three games this year, both of which came in garbage time. The Bulls eked out 162 total yards, which is the high-water mark this year for a Northport opponent. The Tigers have allowed only 129 per game on average – a remarkably low number.
“Our TNT [defensive line and fittingly also an abbreviation for dynamite] is just dominant,” said Campbell. “They do a lot more than take blockers. It’s three against five up there and most times, our three are winning that battle against the opponents’ five.”
One of those three is Cole Ronan, who registered a sack and two tackles behind the line of scrimmage versus Smithtown East. His nickname is Big Nasty.
“Our main goal is to eat up the blocks and let our linebackers come down hill and make the tackles,” said the 6’3” senior. “We work really hard all week in practice to get ready and it shows up in the games.”
His linemate, senior Dan Lugo, loves to have ‘meetings’ with fellow linemen Ronan and senior Ryan Farrington.
“We are always talking about meeting in the backfield, meeting at the quarterback, meeting at the line to stop the running back”, laughed Lugo, who is known around the locker room as Big Daddy. “We have great chemistry.”
So far that chemistry has resulted in the Tigers outscoring their opponents 99-19, with Copiague next on the schedule. The Eagles have laid quite the egg this year, having dropped all three of their games, outscored 155-8 in the process.
Pictured clockwise from above, Smithtown’s Matt Kaires stiff-arms Northport’s Ryan Bell; the Tigers Andrew Argyris on his way to a 28 yard touchdown run; and Jack Sandrib takes on two tacklers in Northport’s win against Smithtown East.
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