Longwood Football Defeats Pat-Med 33-6

A late touchdown in the first half and an early drive by Longwood in the second half was enough to put away Patchogue-Medford Saturday afternoon in Suffolk division I football. The Raiders 33-6 loss at Longwood High School's homecoming game dropped them to 0-3, while Longwood moved to 3-0.

Longwood quarterback Danny Farrell connected with Jordan Wesley in the final minute of the second quarter to jump ahead 13-0. Pat-Med went into halftime knowing it was still in the game against one of the top teams in Suffolk County.

“The first half was pretty close,” Pat-Med head coach James Chiarello said. “We hung with them a little bit and then we had a big play and we just fumbled, bad luck. We had a couple of other turnovers and you just can’t win a game when you have four turnovers.”

After the Lions went up 19-0 on a Kavaughn Wiggins touchdown run the Raiders Joe Altrui returned the kickoff to Pat-Med’s 34-yard line. Altrui then burst into the secondary on the Raiders next play, breaking a tackle along the way. He sprinted down the sideline with no one between him and the end zone but was tracked down by Chris Faison, who was able to punch the ball out. The Lions recovered in the end zone for a touch back.

Longwood took no time to capitalize. Two plays later Davonte Booker ran 75-yards the other way for a touchdown that effectively put the game away at 26-0.

Pat-Med’s normal power running attack was thwarted by the size of the Lions, something Chiarello expected coming in.

“We spread it out a little bit and went to the shotgun because we just can’t line up against those kids because they’re just so massive,” he said.

Also not helping the Raiders cause were four turnovers, including three interceptions. Quarterback Jack Keough was forced to throw more than usual and was effective at times. Connor Coughlin also played a series at quarterback that ended after he threw an interception.

“The hard thing was blocking their lineman and pass protecting for our kids,” Chiarello said. “Our quarterback is 5-foot-8; it’s a little tough to see. We have to get him rolling out and there are a lot of things that have to happen to be successful.”

It wasn’t all going to come together on this day as the Raiders took the field amid homecoming festivities for Longwood.

“I expected them to come out flying, maybe they had a little homecoming hangover, there’s a lot of stuff going on so those guys have some distractions,” Chiarello said. “We did some stuff on defense, we shot around a little bit and tried to confuse them early and that’s why we were able to stay in the game. Then their size and speed just took over at the end.”