Plainedge football's Jaxson Torres throws four touchdown passes to help take down Wantagh in overtime
Jaxson Torres #2, Plainedge quarterback, throws a pass during the fourth quarter of a Nassau County Conference IV football game against host Wantagh High School on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: James Escher
Every once in a while, a game lives up to the hype. Thursday’s matchup of Nassau Conference IV heavyweights Plainedge and Wantagh was just such a game. The long-time rivals stood in the center of the proverbial ring trading haymakers into overtime when Plainedge landed the last two blows.
Jake Parpan caught a pass from Jaxson Torres at the Wantagh 2 and fought his way into the end zone to complete a 9-yard touchdown completion for the lead. Then Bobby Westcott and Jayden Camp took Wantagh’s last breath with a sack on fourth-and-goal to seal the visiting Red Devils’ 33-27 victory.
Parpan was asked about battling the Wantagh defenders for those last two yards and the senior replied, “I can’t think of a tougher two yards I’ve gotten.”
Plainedge and Wantagh were two of the three remaining unbeaten teams in the conference and they found the contest so competitive, each came away convinced that there will be a likely rematch in the county title game next month at Hofstra. Cold Spring Harbor, which also went into the week 4-0, may yet have something to say about it.
“It was back-and-forth the whole way, but all in all this win means we can wear our home] jersey in the [county] finals,” coach Rob Shaver of Plainedge (5-0) said. “Maybe there’s some other team out there — Cold Spring Harbor or Seaford — that can muster up enough. But we are good. And Wantagh is good. Our teams have been through the wringer before playing each other in finals before. I can see us playing one again.”
“Our job is to make sure we see them again at the end,” Wantagh’s Keith Sachs said.
Wantagh had a long Dylan Martini touchdown run and a John Gendels’ 86-yard kickoff return to the end zone both called back due to penalties in the first half and trailed 17-7 at halftime. Yet it seemed to have completed a remarkable comeback when Oliver Iacobazzi came back to Ryan Conigliaro’s high pass to make the catch and complete a 40-yard touchdown for a 27-24 lead with 1:04 left in regulation.
However Red Devils quarterback Jaxson Torres completed five passes to three different receivers to go 43 yards and set up Jonluca Frucci’s game-tying 31-yard field goal on the last snap in regulation.
“We practice two-minute drill every day so we’re comfortable in the position we were in,” Torres said.
“I’d never made a kick in that situation,” said the 5-6, 130-pound Frucci. “It was nerve-wracking, but I thank my coaches for believing in me there.”
“Frucci is a wrestler and he’s tough as hell,” Shaver said.
Plainedge’s considerable ground game was stopped cold by the Wantagh line all afternoon and the Devils had to go to the air. Torres was 24-for-40 passing for 280 yards and four touchdowns — two to Parpan and one each to Alec Anderson and Dylan Fella. Westcott had three tackles for loss in addition to the sack and Dimitris Vardamaskos made an interception to lead the defense.
Martini rushed 21 times for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns and also had a touchdown reception, Conigliaro was 5-for-10 passing for 77 yards and two touchdowns and Andrew Perez and Tommy Wunderlich each had two tackles for losses for Wantagh.
“It was a great game,” Sachs said. “We overcame a lot of adversity — the touchdowns getting called back and all — but I was proud of the way we handled it and came back and take the lead.”
Torres called the matchup with Wantagh “definitely our toughest game so far,” but also sounded as if he liked the idea of a playoff rematch.
“I hope we see them again,” he said.
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.
