Massapequa football tops Port Washington for homecoming win
Joey Diesso #11 of Massapequa carries the ball against Port Washington during a Nassau Conference I game at Massapequa on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Credit: David Meisenholder
Final scores don’t always tell the whole story. Teams that win on homecoming are supposed to walk off the field thrilled. Teams that come up short leave disparaged. None of that was true after Massapequa put up a 35-19 Nassau I win over visiting Port Washington on Saturday.
Massapequa (5-1) opened the game with three unanswered touchdowns on its first three possessions yet came away lamenting how penalties caused the offense to stall and poor defensive execution nearly let the Vikings make it a game. And Port Washington shook off a poor first half and walked out knowing it is a better team than its 3-3 record.
“Championship teams, they put other teams away,” Massapequa coach Kevin Shippos said. “We had a chance to put them away and we didn’t. We let them go right down the field and score on us (to) make it 21-6 and they came very close (to scoring) again before the end of the first half. That’s not the standard in this program. It’s a 48-minute game and the blame falls on me.
“I had them prepared but not enough to play 48 minutes.”
“We were down 28-6 at halftime and challenged them to show more effort and play to their capabilities,” Port Washington coach Kevin Cloghessy said. “Massapequa is very good, well-coached and has playmakers and they jumped on us early. But we’re a good football team when we play with effort and finish.”
For Massapequa, Tyler Villalta rushed for 108 yards and touchdowns of 49 and 2 yards, quarterback Joey Diesso had a 34-yard touchdown run and threw for a pair of scores – 8 yards to Anthony DiNello and 12 yards to Billy Sciurba – and Cole Villalta made two interceptions to halt deep Vikings drives.
“It’s a game of momentum and we have to be better at (sustaining) it,” Tyler Villalta said. “We should have won this game by more. . . . We took our foot off the gas and that team has players.”
Harry Behan returned the second half kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown and had six receptions for 67 yards, Christian Sarchese rushed for 81 yards including a 39-yard TD and Harry Eynon had a 3-yard touchdown run for Port Washington.
’Pequa’s Andrew Pedalino returned the opening kickoff 56 yards and on the second snap Diesso went 34 yards for a touchdown. After forcing the Vikings to go three-and-out, Massapequa needed three more snaps before Tyler Villalta’s 49-yard TD. When DiNello scored, ’Pequa had tallied 21 points in less than 13 minutes. But on the ensuing possession, the Vikings went 73 yards for the Sarchese score.
Since the second half of its season-opening 42-39 loss to Oceanside, the Massapequa offense was something to behold and it looked to be only turning up the volume early. Even though it would answer Port’s score with Diesso’s second TD pass, it started to grow quieter with holding penalties.
“After the Oceanside loss, we said good would come from it and it has,” Diesso said. “Even though we won, it has to be the same with this. We need to keep building.”
The final possession of the first half ended with the Vikings being intercepted at the goal line. The final possession of the game saw Port cap an 88-yard drive with Eynon’s TD with six seconds to play.
“As the defensive coach, seeing them drive down the field and score at the end really bothers me,” Shippos said. “Our guys fought hard and overcame the adversity of penalties and got the job done. But Port deserves a lot of credit for what (it) did.”
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.
