Xavier O'Brady carries Floral Park football to victory over Lynbrook
Xavier O’Brady rushed for 108 yards and two-first half touchdowns for the Knights on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. Credit: James Escher
Floral Park’s recipe for putting the finishing touches on a season-opening win was simple: hand the ball to Xavier O’Brady.
Clinging to a six-point lead over Lynbrook, the Knights had the ball on their own 20 with 5:01 left. They fed it to O’Brady on the next nine plays, and the junior running back did the rest.
O’Brady ran for 47 yards and three first downs on the final drive, allowing Floral Park to take one final kneel and complete a 16-10 home win over Lynbrook in a Nassau Conference III football season opener on Saturday. He finished with 108 yards on 16 carries and two first-half touchdowns.
“It’s just the instinct and just doing what I do,” O’Brady said. “It was the practice, the hard work over the summer — it just pays off.”
O’Brady, who also plays linebacker, was a wide receiver offensively last year, though he was mostly used as a blocker. This season, a valuable role as a ballcarrier is available.
“He’s, in my opinion, one of the better linebackers in our conference, maybe even our county,” Floral Park coach Ron Pickett said. “But last year, he didn’t really get the ball much with the guys we had. This year, when we need to rely on somebody to get the tough yard, he’s a guy we lean on.”
Floral Park (1-0) could have a formidable 1-2 punch in the backfield with O’Brady and Tyreak Cobb. The senior added 69 yards on 13 carries.
“This guy is great,” O’Brady said of Cobb. “He’s a shifty dude right here. It’s hard to tackle him.”
Cobb said: “Xavier, if I was a DI college coach, I’d go after him.”
The Knights forced a Lynbrook fumble on the first play from scrimmage, taking over at the Owls 10. Four plays later, O’Brady ran for a 1-yard touchdown to make it 7-0.
Lynbrook (0-1) evened things with 11:30 left in the second quarter when Joseph McHale took a quarterback keeper 60 yards to the house. O’Brady added a 5-yard touchdown run with 7:21 left in the first half, though a missed PAT kept Floral Park’s lead at 13-7, the eventual halftime score.
Floral Park opened the second half with a 10-play drive capped by Rico Loftus’ 34-yard field goal to make it 16-7 with 6:44 left in the third.
Luke Dantona hit a 24-yard field goal to cut it to 16-10 with 9:39 left. The Knights and Owls then exchanged punts before Floral Park’s final drive that iced the game.
Before the game, Floral Park named its press box after Mary Jane Morra, a former Floral Park student, teacher and cross country and girls lacrosse coach. Following a battle with pancreatic cancer, Morra died at 48 in February 2022.
“She was such a great mentor, and she fought all the way to the end,” Pickett said. “We loved her here. These kids embodied everything she means to Floral Park and the Floral Park community.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
