Ben Meighan's 70-yard TD run seals Floral Park's win over Wantagh in Nassau Conference III semifinals
Benjamin Meighan #2 of Floral Park battles through a jersey tug to pick up a first down during the Nassau Conference III football semifinal against Wantagh at Shuart Stadium on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. Credit: James Escher
A fog of disappointment from a playoff loss still hung over the Floral Park football program at this time a year ago, and coach Ron Pickett felt a team with potential needed some offseason inspiration.
Pickett brought the players into the high school gymnasium, where they stood beneath the school’s last county championship banner.
“The season had ended and he brought us to it and said, ‘Look at this — this is where we’re going to be next season,’ ” senior Brendan O’Sullivan said.
“We last won it in 1976,” Pickett said. “Everyone on this team knows it.”
Floral Park is going to get a chance to hang another banner after earning a 13-3 victory over top-seeded Wantagh in a Nassau Conference III semifinal on Friday at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium.
The Knights got a pair of huge plays in the final 6:25. They stopped Wantagh on a fourth-and-1 from the 2-yard line to preserve a 6-3 lead as O’Sullivan combined with seniors James Driscoll and Chase McLoughlin on the tackle.
After a dead-ball penalty moved the ball back a bit, senior running back Ben Meighan capped a 99-yard drive with a 70-yard touchdown run to seal it.
Floral Park (7-3) will meet No. 2 South Side — a 35-0 winner over No. 3 Plainedge on Friday night — in next Friday’s 7:30 p.m. county championship game at Hofstra. The Knights are 2-3 in Nassau title games.
“South Side and Plainedge are both excellent teams,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ll play anybody. And don’t count us out.”
“In my eyes, we look unstoppable right now,” Meighan said.
Wantagh held a 3-0 lead at the half on Niko Zervos’ 26-yard field goal. Floral Park grabbed a 6-3 lead on a 13-yard scoring strike from quarterback Ryan Connelly to wideout Josh Lewis in the third quarter.
A fourth-quarter drive by Wantagh (8-2) appeared stalled with a fourth-and-7 on the Knights’ 21. Zervos kicked a tying 38-yard field goal, but Floral Park was called for roughing the kicker. Wantagh coach Keith Sachs opted to take the points off the board and take the first down at the Floral Park 11.
On third-and-2, Floral Park’s Giancarlos Henriquez held Dylan Martini to a 1-yard run. Martini got the carry again on fourth down and Driscoll got to him first. An instant later, McLoughlin and O’Sullivan were in on the tackle and O’Sullivan finished the stop.
“If we can’t get two yards on two plays, I don’t know what to say,” Sachs said. “The way our defense was playing to that point, I thought we could stop them deep and get one more possession.”
Meighan, however, said he saw a difference in the Wantagh players after they were denied. And six plays later, he found a big hole on the left side and broke away for the 70-yard touchdown. He finished with 131 yards on 13 carries and had an interception with 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Floral Park has been a study in perseverance during the season. Its three losses came by a total of 17 points, and it got through two weeks without Connolly after a wrist injury.
“Every week for us, it’s been about finding a way,” Pickett said. “Our defense has kept us in games like it did today. They just don’t flinch.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
