Glen Cove Football Falls to Lawrence, 46-26

It was a tale of two halves for the Glen Cove football team Saturday night as they fell to the Lawrence Golden Tornado, 46-26. 

In the first half, Glen Cove dominated both time of possession and the line of scrimmage against a top-seeded Golden Tornado team that featured the three-headed runningback tandem of the Fredericks trio. Keeping the offense basic by rarely putting the ball in the air, Big Red found themselves trailing only 14-13 going into halftime thanks to two rushing touchdowns by quarterback Will Kassar.

Facing a deficit of only one point, the momentum of this game was clearly held by the Big Red sideline. Building on that, they opened up the third quarter with an 83-yard drive, capped off by a touchdown pass from Kassar to receiver Anthony Famiglietti.

Taking a 19-14 lead after a failed two-point conversion, the Big Red defense was over-matched by the speed of the Golden Tornado, yielding four unanswered touchdowns to trail 40-19 with just over three minutes left in the game.

Although they trailed by three touchdowns, Big Red refused to back down from a team that had outplayed them through most of the second half. Kassar completed two big passes on the ensuing drive, and was helped out by a defensive pass interference in the endzone that moved the ball to the 1-yard-line. He ran the ball in himself for a touchdown.

Glen Cove followed up the touchdown by recovering an onside kick. On their first play, down two touchdowns with just over two minutes remaining in regulation, Kassar threw a ball up for grabs down the right side of the field that was intercepted by Lawrence's Ed Robinson.

Lawrence tacked on one more rushing touchdown to put them up by 20, putting the game out of reach for good.

Quotable: “The last two weeks, we're on all cylinders,” said Glen Cove head coach Pete Kopecky. “You can't point to anybody on our team as the guy that you got to stop because everyone is doing something. Everybody is making a play … It's going to be tough for [our opponents] to defend.”

Bottom Line: If there is such a thing as a moral victory in football, this would be it. For Glen Cove to manage to match Lawrence through nearly three quarters is impressive. The final score only got out of hand because Big Red was forced into passing situations, and the high winds that they were driving into were not helping their cause. Expect Glen Cove to bounce back in the coming weeks by picking up at least two wins.

Who's Next: Glen Cove @ Great Neck North, Oct. 6, 4:30 p.m.

Nassau Conference III Football

TEAMS................1........2........3........4 -- F

Lawrence............0......14......14......18 -- 46

Glen Cove...........7........6........6........7 -- 26

GC – Kassar 16-yard run (kick good)

L – R. Fredericks 3-yard run (kick blocked)

GC – Kassar 2-yard run (kick failed)

L – R. Fredericks 12-yard run (2-point conversion good)

GC – Famiglietti 17-yard catch (2-point conversion failed)

L – T. Fredericks 35-yard catch (2-point conversion good)

L – T. Fredericks 61-yard run (kick blocked)

L – R. Fredericks 1-yard run (2-point conversion failed)

L – T. Fredericks 20-yard run (2-point conversion failed)

GC – Kassar 1-yard run (kick good)

L – T. Fredericks 90-yard run (2-point conversion failed)