Sayville football holds off Half Hollow Hills West charge to win Suffolk III championship
Kyle Messina #9 of Sayville scores a touchdown against Half Hollow Hills West during the Suffolk Division III football final game at Stony Brook on Friday, November 22, 2024 Credit: David Meisenholder
Kyle Messina has made play after play for the Sayville football team, but the offensive juggernaut’s biggest play of the Suffolk Division III championship game on Friday night came on defense.
Half Hollow Hills West had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds and send the seesaw thriller into overtime.
Quarterback Joseph Filardi, a generational talent, somehow positioned his Colts in a way only a magician of his skills could. He already had thrown for five touchdowns, and here he was, having driven the Colts from their 6 to the Sayville 39 with 17 seconds left.
Filardi took the shotgun snap and immediately scrambled away from heavy pressure to fire a pass into the corner of the end zone, where Anthony Raio seemingly had worked his way open.
Enter Messina. The strong safety jetted across the end zone and leaped high to barely get his outstretched fingertips on the ball and deflect it from Raio’s grasp with 10 seconds left.
After a 5-yard illegal procedure penalty on Hills West, Filardi threw a 7-yard out to Raio to the 37 with three seconds left.
Filardi rolled right and then left as he tried to elude a horde of oncoming pass rushers, but defensive tackle Clarkson Richter, who had just subbed into the game, tackled him as time expired.
The Sayville bench mobbed Richter as the Golden Flashes held on to beat Hills West, 42-35, and capture the Suffolk Division III title at Stony Brook University.
“That was Clarkson’s first play on defense,” Sayville coach Reade Sands said. “He’s quick off the ball. We’d just put him in. What a moment for him.”
“I was like, ‘This is my moment. Make the most of it,’ ” Richter said. “I lined up between guard and tackle on the left side of the defense. I got through the line and chased Filardi toward our sideline and could envision a sack. I grabbed his legs and ripped him down.”
Richter had three sacks despite a broken middle finger that forced him to miss four games earlier this season. “My mom always says, ‘When your number is called, make sure you’re ready,’ ” he said. “I was ready and made the most of it.”
Sayville (11-0) will meet Garden City (11-0) for the Long Island Class III championship, tentatively scheduled for Saturday at Stony Brook.
The game was a highlight reel for Hansen Award candidates Messina and Filardi. They tried to one-up each other on both sides of the ball.
Messina rushed 36 times for 264 yards and four touchdowns. Filardi completed 21 of 35 passes for 370 yards and the five scores.
Messina’s third touchdown of the second half came on a 33-yard run with 10:30 left to give Sayville a 42-28 lead.
Messina credited the offensive line of tackles Javen Taff and Rich Fontenetta, guards Mike Caporaso and Alex DelGiorno and center Alex LaBella for getting him into open space.
Hills West (9-2) got within 42-35 when Filardi threw a 29- yard touchdown pass to Raio (14 catches for 283 yards and three TDs) with 9:50 left.
On Sayville’s next possession, it worked the clock in a methodical 13-play, 71-yard march to the Colts’ 14 and ate up 7:47. On the final play of that drive, quarterback Patrick Coan converted a fourth-and-3 pass for a first down at the Colts’ 14, but the ball was stripped by the Colts’ Jesse Brooks and returned to the 24 with 2:03 left.
“It was crazy,” Sayville coach Reade Sands said. “We were going to run out the clock in a wild back-and-forth game. Instead, we were back on defense in the final two minutes.”
Facing fourth-and-28 from his own 6 with 54 seconds left, Filardi worked his magic. He fired a 34-yard completion to Raio with 46 seconds left and moved the ball within striking range of a tying touchdown until Messina broke up the last pass.
“Just got my hand on it,” Messina said with a smile.
“I know I can’t do it all by myself and I thanked my teammates and the coaches afterward,” Filardi said. “I was proud of our guys and the way the group came together. We fell short in the semis the past two years. We finally made it to Stony Brook. That meant a lot to us.”
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.