Wantagh football saved its best plays for last, and they worked to perfection in LIC
Wantagh football teammates and coaches pose for pictures after their 29-21 win over Bayport-Blue Point in the Class IV Long Island Championship at Shuart Stadium on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. Credit: James Escher
In the week leading up to the Long Island Class IV football championship, Wantagh coach Keith Sachs called his program’s first meeting against Bayport-Blue Point “an amazing unknown.”
But the 32-year coach was also getting excited about potentially calling plays he has not called in years because of the familiarity Nassau teams have with them.
Sachs had a chance to dust off old trick plays and install new schemes during the postseason run. He and his coaching staff had enough confidence in Wantagh’s athleticism to execute some plays they called for the first time this season in the 29-21 win over the Phantoms.
It worked to perfection, as Wantagh won its third LIC and first since 2016.
“The kids work on stuff on all week, and when you call it like a regular play they just love it,” Sachs said. “We don’t even call them trick plays because we just name them like a regular play . . . It’s kind of fun. In the past, we’ve had to empty our playbook so early in the year that we have to create new ways to run more stuff. This was the opposite. We barely ran half our screens [this year] because we didn’t even need a passing game.
“It felt nice to use all our athletes. It felt nice to watch guys step up that usually didn’t have to, not that they couldn’t.”
Sachs said Wantagh routinely runs 25-to-28 offensive plays per game. Against BBP, it ran 56.
Wantagh scored a touchdown with 13 seconds left in the first half to cut its deficit to 14-13 before lining up for what seemed to be the tying extra point. Instead, holder Dylan Martini — Wantagh’s sensational running back — pulled the ball back, rolled to his right and lofted it to Oliver Iacobazzi across the field for the two-point pass and the lead right before halftime. Wantagh never trailed again.
“It’s a designed practice, but it wasn’t designed,” Sachs said. “He can do it any time he wants, or if he doesn’t like the handoff . . . it wasn’t like a desperation fake extra point or anything.”
Wantagh pulled off a similar play earlier in the season, but rather than a throw it was a pitch for a two-point run.
In the fourth quarter, Martini took a direct snap, ran right and threw a jump pass to Joe Nicholson for an 18-yard touchdown to give Wantagh a 29-14 lead with 7:20 left. Sachs installed the Wildcat formation late in the regular season and saved that play until then.
“I loved our play-calling,” Martini said after the win.
Martini was one of the brightest stars in Nassau, finishing his senior season with 1,976 rushing yards and 28 touchdown runs en route to winning the Thorp Award, given to the county's best player.
Wantagh also called multiple Statue of Liberty handoff plays against BBP, including one where Sachs thought a 70-yard touchdown would have occurred if not for a missed block.
Sachs trusted his best players in unfamiliar spots — even in championship-clinching moments.
“When we were running out the clock, we had Dylan hand the ball off to Johnny [Gendels] in the Wildcat,” Sachs said. “We’ve never done that, so I called that for the first time with three minutes left in the game and we’re trying to run out the clock . . . I said, ‘Guys, I’m calling these plays we’ve never run before because we’ve practiced them and I have confidence in you.’
“So let’s have some fun.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.