Garden City football dominates in Nassau III semifinal on way to its 52nd straight win

The Garden City football program is built different.

They outperform opponents in all three phases of the game week in and week out.

There is no wart to be found in the program. Winning streaks are sustained through the reload of skillsets, focused attitudes and superior coaching. That’s the Garden City program as they improve Long Island’s longest winning streak in history to 52 games.

From the first play from scrimmage to the last on Saturday afternoon, Garden City was unstoppable. Thorp Award winner Michael Berkery opened the scoring on the first play with a 7-yard touchdown run. And junior Gianluca Ingrassia closed a nearly perfect Garden City performance with a 60-yard scoring run on the final play.

The result was pure domination.

The top-seeded Trojans opened a 41-point first half lead and cruised to a 54-0 win over South Side in a Nassau Conference III football semifinal at Hofstra University.

Berkery would add a second quarter 65-yard touchdown run and sophomore quarterback Brayden Robertiello scored from two and 29 yards as the first-string offense was lifted after one half of play.

The South Side defense had no answer for the Garden City machine. The Trojans scored on six of seven of their first-half possessions. The 41-point lead forced the teams to play with a running clock for the final 2:45 of the first half and the entire second half.

“We have a very focused team, and practice hard every day, every week,” Berkery said. “South Side took out Elmont, the number two seed, and they were coming here fired up. This is our season to go out and continue to win. And we take that very seriously.”

Garden City (10-0), which moved to Nassau Conference III from II this season, is 107-3 under coach Dave Ettinger and has won six Long Island Class II titles.

Garden City takes a Long Island record eight consecutive conference playoff titles into next week’s Nassau Conference III title final against Manhasset (9-1) at Hofstra University Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

South Side (3-7) lost to Garden City during the regular season, 42-0. Cyclones coach Phil Onesto had nothing but praise for his guys battling back to the conference semifinal round after a difficult regular season.

“Nobody gave us a shot to get back here,” Onesto said. “I’m proud of my team. What can I say about Garden City? They’re a great team on an enormous winning streak. They’ve dominated all season.”

Garden City outrushed South Side, 458-13. And the Trojans used 11 different ballcarriers.

“We’re a prideful line,” said Garden City’s left tackle Daniel Morizio. “We’re undersized but we get off the ball quickly and get into our blocks and push the bigger guys back. When our backs get to the next level of the defense, they make people miss in the open field.”

The Garden City offensive line of tackles Luke Lesueur and Morizio, guards Conor Fortney and Zach Olson and center Jake Schlipf paved the way for eight rushing touchdowns, including four runs of more than 50 yards.

“We are very athletic and have multiple threats to score,” Ettinger said. “We didn’t have a perfect first half. We had a big lead but stumbled on a few drives. I am very pleased with the overall effort, especially for the guys who work so hard in practice and get the opportunity to play at Hofstra in these games.”

Blake Cascadden had a 30-yard first quarter scoring run and Merit Ruckh added a 54-yard TD run to close the half, 41-0.

The Trojans two second-half touchdowns came on a 57-yard run by Gavin O’Donohue and the Ingrassia 60-yard romp.

“We have a great attitude that grows with intensity every week,” Morizio said. “No one wants to lose. We don’t even want to allow a point.”

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.