Dylan Fella and Alec Anderson lead Plainedge past Seaford
Alec Anderson of Plainedge gets both feet in bounds and catches a touchdown pass during a Nassau Conference IV football game against Seaford on Fridat at Plainedge. Credit: David Meisenholder
The Plainedge football program was relocated this season into Nassau Conference IV, where the county’s smallest schools play. However, its gridiron pride is as big as ever.
The Red Devils spent a decade as a standard-setter in Nassau Conference III — winning five county and three Long Island championships — and now see these new surroundings as a new frontier to conquer. That much was clear on Friday night when it faced off against a Seaford program that has won six Conference IV crowns in the same period of time and was installed as its preseason No. 1 seed.
Each team’s passion to assert itself was clear from the bruising play and number of penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct. But in the end, Plainedge sent a message that the Vikings no longer are the toughest kid on the block with a 28-14 victory at its Edward Byrne Memorial Field.
“There was no way we were going to be the ones to end up with egg on our faces in this one,” Plainedge coach Rob Shaver said.
Dylan Fella rushed for 132 yards and two touchdowns and Alec Anderson was arguably the best player on the field all night with a touchdown reception, three sacks and a fumble recovery to lead the Red Devils (3-0), who scored 21 unanswered points in the second quarter for a 28-7 halftime lead and held tough when Seaford (1-2) threatened to make it a game in the second half.
Seaford was looking for a bounce-back after last weekend’s five-point loss to Cold Spring Harbor, the preseason No. 5 seed. The loss to Plainedge — seeded third — gives the Vikings back-to-back losses for the first time since 2013.
“Maybe those guys expected us to lose with us coming down to their [conference], but we know who we are,” Fella said. “At Plainedge we’re always looking to win a championship.”
“We have high expectations like always,” Anderson said. “We have something to prove and that’s what we’re doing.”
In a lot of ways, Plainedge won despite itself. Twice it had long touchdown runs called back because of penalties, and its one turnover — an interception — nearly ignited Seaford’s comeback.
“We've been around long enough,” Shaver said. “We worry about the playoffs mostly and getting better for [them] every day . . . We’ve got a lot of improvements to make. We had a ton of penalties tonight and a bunch of touchdowns called back. We have to play better.”
Red Devils quarterback Jaxson Torres was 10-for-15 passing for 114 yards, a touchdown and the interception. Fullback Jaxson Gawronski had a 7-yard touchdown run on Plainedge’s first possession.
The Vikings drew even before the end of the quarter when quarterback Michael Spinella put a perfect pass in the hands of streaking wideout Kyle Britton for a 59-yard score. But Seaford managed only one first down in the second quarter and Plainedge scored on all three of its possessions.
The first two of those came on Fella’s runs, a 2-yarder and an 8-yarder. The third came when Torres found Anderson for a 13-yard TD strike.
Torres was intercepted by Ayden Das on the first possession after halftime and Spinella and running back Brian Falk (20 carries for 77 yards) took Seaford on an 83-yard drive to score on Brian Hennessy’s 12-yard touchdown catch in traffic in a fourth-and-7 situation.
Seaford got to the Devils’ 39 on their next possession before a turnover snuffed the drive.
“We had a lot of motivation with where they seeded us and them,” Plainedge two-way lineman Nick Ippolito said. “The notion that people were down on Plainedge? That’s not typical for who we are.”
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.
