Magloire helps Lynbrook roll past Bethpage
Lynbrook's QB Paul Magloire with the pass. (Sept. 7, 2010) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
If you saw a clan of green-jersey wearing football players walking on East Rockaway Avenue toward Hewlett High School last night, you probably weren't alone.
After all, there were 71 of them making the trek.
But before their team trip to scout Herricks-Manhasset, Lynbrook's army, led by quarterback Paul Magloire, dispatched Bethpage, 33-0, at home in each team's Nassau Conference III opener.
"We just wanted to make a statement as a team," Magloire said. "No game is easy. We don't really skip over teams and think, 'Oh, we're gonna beat them badly.' "
But that's exactly what Lynbrook did.
Magloire couldn't be stopped, rushing for 101 yards and a touchdown on four carries and throwing for a touchdown and a two-point conversion in only one half of football.
His electrifying 61-yard, second-quarter scamper gave the Owls an 18-0 lead and gave the capacity crowd at Marion Street Elementary a highlight-worthy moment in an otherwise methodical victory.
"The big boys up front led me, and I just followed," Magloire said. "I didn't do much."
Kendall Bruton kicked off the scoring when he took a swing pass from Magloire and dove into the end zone at the end of a 15-yard touchdown catch-and-run to make it 6-0.
Mike Kozlakowski (4 yards) and Rocco Scibelli (71) had rushing touchdowns in addition to Magloire's. The Lynbrook ground attack gashed Bethpage for 315 yards.
"One of the things we always want to do is run the football," Lynbrook coach Steve LoCicero said. "We had some success running the football inside on some counters, outside on some sweeps, so it really worked out well for us."
Nothing seemed to work for Bethpage offensively.
The Golden Eagles hadn't picked up a first down without the benefit of a penalty, but then did on consecutive plays in the second quarter. But on the very next play, Lynbrook's Matt Trotta scooped up a fumble and returned it 48 yards to make it 27-0 with 8:27 left in the half.
Bethpage was playing with heavy hearts, as this was its first game since the passing of longtime coach Howie Vogts last month. Before the game, there was a moment of silence in his honor, and the teams shook hands at midfield in a show of sportsmanship, an ideal Vogts championed.
Erwin Dill, his assistant of 30-plus years and the team's current coach, said: "It was emotional. Coach Vogts was surely missed."
