Dan Villari has five of Plainedge's nine touchdowns in 61-13 win
Plainedge quarterback Daniel Villari rears back to throw during the Nassau Conference III football game against South Side in North Massapequa on Friday, October 25, 2019. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
No one uses the phrase "perfect game" in football. Yet that’s pretty much what Plainedge played when it met and ran over South Side in a matchup of Nassau Conference III unbeatens on Friday night.
Dan Villari rushed for 209 yards and five touchdowns and Dion Kuinlan ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns as the defending county champion Red Devils took it to the end zone on all nine possessions in a 61-13 victory at Plainedge’s Edward Byrne Memorial Field.
Plainedge (7-0) can wrap up the No. 1 seeding for the Nassau playoffs that begin in two weeks with a win next weekend against Lynbrook.
“Ever since we lost in the LIC last year, we’ve been thinking about winning it this time,” said Villari, who now has 11 rushing touchdowns this season. “A lot of people hyped this game up but, for us, it was just another game. We want to play in the big one.”
Plainedge rolled up more than 450 rushing yards answering all questions about an offensive line that was essentially all newcomers. “The practices are a big thing at Plainedge,” said center Christopher Gentile, who had several key blocks on scoring runs. “We might not have had the game experience coming into this season, but we had practiced against those seniors in every practice last season. That was experience, too.”
Villari’s touchdown runs went for 9, 3, 12, 16 and 37 yards. Kuinlan found the end zone on runs of 54 and 20 yards. Luke Lombardo added 84 rushing yards and a 57-yard touchdown and Joe Leone had a 55-yarder.
The Red Devils’ defense was almost as good as its offense as it limited the Cyclones (6-1) to just two scores after it entered averaging 32.2 points per game. Joe Cavalieri was a standout for Plainedge with four tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including three sacks.
South Side’s overpowering quarterback William Pickett was limited to 104 yards on 20 carries. He got 77 of them on the first snap of the game when he broke off a touchdown run down the right side and put Plainedge in the unusual position of trailing.
Plainedge answered with an 80-yard drive capped by Lombardi’s score, but on the ensuing possession, the Cyclones punted on a fourth-and-1 and the balance in the game shifted. The Red Devils scored a again with a 65-yard drive that ended with Villari winning a race to the right pylon in the end zone on a 9-yard score for a 14-7 lead. Cyclones coach Phil Onesto wouldn’t punt on fourth-and-short much after that.
The next South Side possession had a fourth-and-2 and Pickett threw incomplete. Six plays later Villari was leaping over a defender to reach the pylon for a 20-7 lead.
“Plainedge is the real deal and they played a great game against us,” Onesto said.
“I love the way we answered after the first touchdown,” Plainedge coach Rob Shaver said. “I'm kind of glad it happened. We haven't been in in a tremendous amount of situations like that, where we trailed. It was nice to see our guys respond really well.”
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.
