Half Hollow Hills West football's Joseph Filardi accounts for eight TDs, 555 total yards in Suffolk Division III semifinal win over Islip
Quarterback Joseph Filardi of Half Hollow Hills West runs the ball in for a first during the Suffolk III semifinal playoff game against Islip on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024 in Dix Hills. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Half Hollow Hills West quarterback Joseph Filardi can take over a football game in a flash.
With his second-seeded Colts and No. 3 Islip deadlocked with 5:42 left in the third quarter of Saturday’s Suffolk Division III semifinal, the senior quarterback’s task was nothing new.
“I just think he’s the best kid, best football player in the state,” said Hills West coach Gerald Filardi, also Joseph’s father. “He’s that good. He can take over a game, and that’s what he did.”
Filardi and the Colts scored five straight touchdowns to take a 35-point fourth-quarter lead in an eventual 55-27 home win in Dix Hills. Filardi continued his seemingly career-long string of video-game numbers with 555 total yards and eight touchdowns. He had 14 carries for 355 yards and four touchdowns and completed 11 of 19 passes for 200 yards and four touchdowns.
“We’re excited,” Joseph Filardi said. “Great opportunity we have to play Sayville at Stony Brook. It’s what I’ve wanted my high school career. The team’s definitely excited. The senior group has been together for a while, so we’re ready to go.”
Hills West (9-1) and No. 1 Sayville (10-0) will play in the Suffolk III championship at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Stony Brook’s LaValle Stadium. Sayville, which beat Hills West, 28-21, on Oct. 19, ended the Colts’ 2023 season with a 42-28 win in the Suffolk III semifinals.
The Colts are back in the county final for the first time since 2018, when then-quarterback Gerald Filardi Jr. ultimately led them to the Long Island Class III title.
“We’re back there,” the six-year Colts coach said. “The last one to do it was my oldest son’s class. We got to match what he did.”
Filardi snapped the 20-all tie with 4:48 left in the third quarter, making it 27-20 on a 71-yard touchdown run. He ran for a 10-yard touchdown 2:12 later to extend the lead to 34-20.
Filardi threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Smith with 11:55 left, ran for a 79-yard touchdown with 8:00 left and tossed a 42-yard touchdown pass to Mason Reisch with 2:49 remaining to give the Colts a 35-point cushion before Islip scored in the final two minutes.
“He’s the best player I’ve ever seen,” said right guard/linebacker Ben Vogt, who blocked an extra point and deflected a pass that led to Jerrel Jenkins’ third-quarter interception. “I love blocking for him. Whenever I see a big hole and he’s gone, I know he’s going to score.”
Filardi has 74 carries for 1,187 yards and 12 scores this season. He has completed 115 of 173 passes for 2,715 yards and 38 touchdowns.
Brady Nash completed 27 of 45 passes for 357 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions and ran for 93 yards for Islip (7-3), which tied the game at 7, 13 and 20 but never led.
“Winning this game and possibly the next, it’ll leave a great legacy [for this team],” Joseph Filardi said. “We’ll be remembered forever. But we got to take it one week at a time.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.