Plainedge football: Red Devils defeat Seaford on Jaxson Torres-to-Alec Anderson pass for Nassau IV semifinal victory

There was only time left for Plainedge to go full Hail Mary on fourth-and-17 from the Seaford 38. It seemed likely that the teams would have to work overtime, yet the Red Devils did have two things going for them on this fling for the win.

“A guy that runs really fast and jumps really high and a quarterback that can throw it as far as the field,” coach Rob Shaver said. “Yeah, that helps.”

Jaxson Torres is that 6-3 sophomore quarterback with the big arm and Alec Anderson is that 6-4 senior receiver who’s able to fly and jump. Torres sent the ball sailing toward the left side of the end zone, and Anderson came down with the ball. The game was untied. The clock was at 0:00.

A 38-yard touchdown pass. A Hail Mary to win a Nassau IV semifinal and earn a ticket to the championship game. Hard to beat that.

Final score Thursday night at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium: Plainedge 33, Seaford 27.

“We had four seconds left; there wasn’t much to do,” Torres said after throwing for 115 yards and two scores. “We gave our best wide receiver a chance. He went up and got it. That’s what he does.”

“It feels amazing,” he added about his winning toss. “Amazing.”

The top-seeded Red Devils train for situations like this.

“We’ve done it a couple of times in practice, more than you think,” Anderson said. “But I practice jump balls quite a bit. I work out. I’ve got strong hands. Everything comes together.”

So Plainedge and No. 3 seed Wantagh, the two 9-1 teams that dropped down from Conference III after the last school year, will be the ones squaring off for a county crown at 4 p.m. on Nov. 22 back at Hofstra.

The teams indeed had to work overtime when they met in the regular season. The Red Devils won at Wantagh 33-27 in Week 5. Wantagh crushed Cold Spring Harbor 55-6 in Thursday night’s other semi.

Asked how much confidence there is that his team is going to win a championship, Torres said, “A lot of confidence. That was a good boost of momentum.”

The end-of-the-game boost capped an 11-play, 61-yard drive that covered the final 3:28 and including a fourth-and-4 throw by Torres to Tyler Gribbin for 5 yards.

And the drive followed a 13-play, 59-yard journey by fifth-seeded Seaford (5-5), the defending champ, that covered 7:35. Brian Falk, on a 16-carry, 62-yard night, ran the ball in from the 2 to tie it at 27-all. But the PAT was blocked.

“Good and bad,” Shaver said of his feeling. “I wish it were a little easier.”

The points came easily early on.

Falk raced the opening kickoff back 84 yards to the end zone. Then Dylan Fella, who rushed 27 times for 194 yards, ran the ball in from the 5 for Plainedge. Then Giancarlo Belgiorno ran it in from the 1 for Seaford. So it was 14-7 just 3:07 into the game.

It was 14-14 after a Dimitris Vardamaskos 3-yard scoring run for Plainedge in the second quarter. And then Michael Spinella helped the Vikings take a 21-14 lead at the intermission.

The junior QB went long down the left sideline for Kyle Britton and hit him for the go-ahead 54-yard TD on the final play of the half.

The Red Devils tied it on Torres’ 1-yard keeper in the third, then went ahead 27-21 on his 22-yard scoring pass to Vardamaskos on the second play of the fourth.

Now they’re moving on to the final.

“On to the next,” Anderson said. “That’s what’s important.”