Newfield football improves to 4-0 with win over Deer Park
Newfield's Luis Fernandez (21) runs in a touchdown in the third quarter with a little help from Matthew Giglio (55) during the Suffolk Division II football game between Newfield and Deer Park on Saturday Oct 5, 2024. Credit: Bob Sorensen
Newfield did not let outside expectations derail its football season. Through four games, the Wolverines – the preseason No. 12 seed in Suffolk Division II – are prospering.
In Saturday’s 49-7 home win over Deer Park in Selden, Newfield displayed a potent ground attack that saw 11 different ball carriers combine for 475 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Senior Luis Fernandez led the way with 128 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, and Jacob Russo had 88 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Chris Mastres, Nicholas Lucenti and Dante Powell each ran for touchdowns as well in the Suffolk II victory.
“I love when my job’s easy,” said senior quarterback Matt Evers, who completed 6 of 11 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown. “I say it all the time. I love when they make my job easy and all I have to do is get the ball into their hands.”
The stable of tailbacks thrived behind a main offensive line combination of (from left to right) Carlos Gomez, Jansel Torres, Matthew Giglio, Yousef Abumusallam and Cole Clark.
The fantastic start for Newfield (4-0) comes after a 1-7 season in 2023.
“It’s a fresh start, but the senior leadership and discipline, the character of the team – not that it’s different from last year – but it’s a very high character team,” Newfield coach Nick Adler said. “When I speak about little things, they listen and they get it done. They come out and really give the effort to attack those little things that we talk about. It doesn’t go in one ear and out the other.
“We’ve been through a lot. We’re very close. We have each other’s backs. It’s a team mentality. Every week, there’s different guys scoring touchdowns. We spread the ball around to 15 different players. We all bought into that team-first mentality.”
Newfield started the game with a 12-play, 80-yard drive capped by Russo’s 8-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0 with 5:21 left in the first quarter. On Newfield’s next drive, Evers threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Mastres to extend its lead to 14-0 with 44 seconds left in the first quarter.
Mastres made it 21-0 before halftime on a 30-yard touchdown with 4:20 left in the second quarter.
“I’ve really just grown up with these people all my life,” Mastres said. “Last year was a rough season, and we decided to turn things around.”
Fernandez, who had nine first-half carries for 58 yards, found paydirt twice in the second half – a 4-yard run with 8:24 left in the third quarter and a 52-yard run with 11:49 left in the fourth. His first score, and an ensuing two-point conversion rush by David Spooner, made it 29-0.
A 6-yard touchdown run by Lucenti made it 35-0 following a missed extra point with 6:02 left in the third. Deer Park (0-4) broke through on Aaron Smith’s 3-yard touchdown run to make it 35-7 with 1:27 left in the third. Fernandez’s second score extended the lead to 42-7.
“It’s a completely different change from last year,” Fernandez said. “It feels like last year we couldn’t get blocking assignments right. This year, it’s hard to find them wrong.”
Powell had a 4-yard touchdown run to bring the score to its final margin with four minutes left.
The Wolverines have continued their best start to a season since 2015, when they went 12-0 and won the Long Island Class II title.
“We’re the 12-seed because we won one game last year,” Adler said. “The kids know that, and the kids know, too – we’re the underdogs.
“The wolf climbing the mountain is always hungrier than the wolf on top. So we’re going to keep climbing, and we’re going to stay hungry.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.