Ja'Quan Thomas' 3-yard TD run with 2:39 left lifts Floyd past Longwood
Floyd's Ja'Quan Thomas takes the handoff 10 yards for the touchdown against Longwood. Credit: George A Faella
Just six miles of the William Floyd Parkway separate Floyd and Longwood.
For most of Saturday’s Parkway Bowl, the nickname for the rivalry series between the school’s football programs, neither team could sustain more than a yard of distance from each other.
After Longwood tied the game on Kaden Reid’s 37-yard touchdown run and ensuing two-point conversion pass from Ryan Mandaro to Giovanni Johnson with 7:49 left, Floyd reeled off an 80-yard drive to take the lead for good.
Junior running back Ja’Quan Thomas, who had 22 carries for 166 yards and three touchdowns, punched in the go-ahead 3-yard run with 2:39 left. Longwood reached the 50 on its final drive, but Neo Dawson sealed the game with an interception at the Floyd 26 with 1:31 left.
Floyd ended the game in victory formation, securing a thrilling 36-29 home win in a Suffolk Division I opener in Mastic Beach.
“It means so much because they’re right down the road,” Floyd coach Paul Longo said. “They’re a great football program with a great tradition like we are. To come here, to play so tough today, it was just a great game.”
Floyd (1-0) has won 12 straight over Longwood (0-1) and leads the all-time series, 41-19-2.
Floyd's Ja'Quan Thomas takes the handoff 10 yards for the touchdown against Longwood. Credit: George A Faella
Floyd faced a third-and-6 from the Longwood 44 on the play before Thomas’ third score. Quarterback AJ Cannet threaded a perfect 41-yard pass down the right sideline to Joshua Jordan.
“That’s Josh Jordan, Olympic track runner,” Cannet said. “He’s just so fast. It makes my life easy. Just put the ball out there, and he runs under it.”
Thomas showed glimpses of his potential after being called up from JV for Floyd’s postseason run last year, when the Colonials won the Suffolk Division I title before losing in the Class I LIC. With his downhill running style and tremendous ability to break tackles, No. 25 will have opponents’ attention all season.
“I just know I need to get them the touchdown in the end zone,” Thomas said. “Breaking tackles, grateful for my offensive line, of course. They make the holes, and I just go off that.
“I know when I need a score and my team’s counting on me, I just got to get in the end zone.”
Longwood opened the scoring as Kalen Percer ran for a 9-yard touchdown 2:51 into the game. Thomas answered with an 8-yard touchdown run to tie it at 7 with 4:45 left in the first quarter.
Floyd took a 14-7 lead on Cannet’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Jordan with 10:21 left in the second quarter.
Lions running back Davien Benjamin-Sheffey, who had nine carries for 103 yards but missed the second half with cramps, gave Longwood a 21-14 lead before halftime with touchdown runs of 68 and 3 yards.
“I think a lot of people were a little down on us,” Longwood coach Sean Kluber said. “... I think we showed today – that’s a very good football team we played, and we took them all the way to the end.”
Following a 14-play, eight-minute drive to open the third quarter, Floyd evened things at 21. The Colonials were set to kick a field goal before Longwood jumped offsides, leading to Thomas’ 4-yard touchdown run.
Floyd stuffed Longwood on fourth-and-inches on the Floyd 49 late in the third quarter. The Colonials cashed in on their next drive, as a 1-yard touchdown run by Cannet and a two-point conversion rush by Thomas made it 29-21 with 10:03 remaining.
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
