Freeport picks up a much-needed win over Syosset behind big plays from D'Angelo Gordon and Landon Daley
Freeport's D'Angelo Gordon breaks the tackle of Syosset's Sean Dillon as he runs for a touchdown in a Nassau Conference I football game between Syosset and Freeport at Freeport High School on Saturday Oct. 14, 2023 Credit: Neil Miller
One of Nassau football’s bigger mysteries – what happened to Freeport? – may have gotten solved during Saturday’s steady rain.
The Red Devils - the No. 3 preseason seed in Nassau Conference I, but a winner in just one of four previous games - finally got out of their own way and scored a significant victory over visiting Syosset. The 18-13 triumph over a contender was the sort that had proved surprisingly elusive.
“We just had to stop beating ourselves,” Freeport coach Russ Cellan said. “Syosset is a really good team. Playing the teams in this conference is hard enough. You can't be careless with the football and that's what we've been doing all season. We’ve been careless with the football at times and it’s hurt us.”
Seniors D’Angelo Gordon and Landon Daley each made two enormous plays in the late going that paved the way for Freeport (2-3).
Syosset (4-2), behind a big game from quarterback Mustafa Mozawalla, had a first-and-goal on the Freeport 6 and was poised for a touchdown that could have put the game away midway through the fourth quarter. But Syosset fumbled the ball into the end zone and Daley recovered for the Red Devils. Five plays later, Gordon was lined up at quarterback, pulled back a handoff and raced straight ahead for a 52-yard touchdown. Freeport muffed the conversion, but had an 18-13 lead with 6:30 to play.
Gordon finished with 184 yards on 26 carries and all three Freeport touchdowns. He had scoring runs of 1 and 5 yards in the first quarter when the Devils built a 12-0 lead before trailing 13-12 at the half.
“The fourth quarter we had to buckle down because it was ‘go’ time,” Daley said. “We’ve been competing and coming up short and it was time to play like the team we believe we are.”
“We can compete with anyone and that was the play we needed,” Gordon said. “[The season] has been frustrating, but it was on us because of mistakes. We had to tighten it up.”
On the ensuing possession, Mozawalla connected with Gianpaul Trapeo on a 15-yard pass for a first down at the Devils’ 28. On the next snap, Gordon - playing defensive back - snaked past the offensive line and stopped Mozawalla mid-rollout for a six-yard loss. After an incomplete pass, Daley delivered a five-yard tackle-for-loss to make it fourth-and-21.
Syosset’s last offensive play was an incomplete pass.
“We know how good Syosset is and how good [Mozawalla] is as a player,” Gordon said. “But after we scored we knew we had to trust ourselves and get a stop. We knew one of us would make the plays.”
Added Daley: “We know what we’ve got. We knew we could do it.”
Sean Dillon recovered a Freeport fumble in the end zone for a touchdown to get Syosset on the board and Mozawalla’s 3-yard touchdown run made it possible for Dillon to kick a go-ahead extra point with 3:54 left in the first half.
Mozawalla rushed for 97 yards on 19 carries and made a slew of key plays for Syosset, which was 6-for-13 on third down conversions and 3-for-5 on fourth down conversions. Mozawalla rushed for the first down on six of those nine conversions.
“We found a way to end up on a positive end rather than a [negative],” Cellan said. “A win like this? It should give us some confidence going to the final two [regular season] games.”
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.
