Massapequa Football Falls to Dalers

The final game of the regular season offered so many possibilities. Win and Massapequa football earned a home playoff game. Lose and the Chiefs were locked into the No. 5 seed and a road date with No. 4 East Meadow. 

Despite a prolific passing day by senior quarterback Paul Bentz, Massapequa could not get past rival Farmingdale in a 21-14 road loss Saturday. So while the Chiefs (5-3) are playoff bound, facing the Jets in a Nassau Conference I quarterfinal isn’t what they hoped for.

Bentz completed 15 of 20 passes for 207 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He ran for 50 yards on 17 carries. Craig Berge caught 10 passes for 88 yards. 

But when the Massapequa needed a big play from Bentz, the Dalers defense stiffened up and denied the Chiefs.

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The Dalers took a 14-7 lead when running back Kevin Petit-Frere found the right edge and sprinted away from the Massapequa defense for a 20-yard touchdown with 11:52 left in the game.

When Massapequa tried to answer – driving to the Daler 12-yard-line – it had three shots to make it happen. But Bentz was stuffed on second down, threw incomplete on third and was sacked by Matt Dittmeier and Drew Marlow to end the threat. 

“They got the pressure on the quarterback and it resulted in bad plays,” Massapequa second-year coach Kevin Shippos said.

Still, Massapequa refused to go down quietly.

Farmingdale (7-1) took over at its own 20 with 7:44 left. Running back Curtis Jenkins put the game away with a 74-yard scoring run just three plays later.

The Chiefs marched back down the field and scored on Bentz’ 12-yard strike to Berge to close the gap to 21-14 with 1:52 to go. Farmingdale’s Xavier Sanabria recovered the squib kick. 

Massapequa used its three remaining time outs and the defense held Farmingdale to fourth-and-inches from the Chiefs’ 39. 

Then Dalers quarterback Joe Valente powered his way for 2 yards and a fresh set of downs. Game over.

“We got momentum going into the second half,” said Valente, who rushed for 58 yards on 10 carries. The Dalers ran the ball for 283 yards.

It didn’t help that one Massapequa football player – Taylor Bocchiaro – was among four teens charged with robbery Wednesday after they allegedly took oxycodone from a 20-year-old man in Hicksville, according to Nassau County Police.

The robbery and bust was the talk of the school and community. No doubt it was a distraction for the team too.

“We just have to keep working,” Shippos said. “We’ve had tons of adversity. They played their hearts out the entire season. We’ll keep going. That’s all we can do.”

      Nassau Conference I Football

M – Korber 26 pass from Bentz (Berge kick)

F – Kennedy 18 pass from Valente (Kolodny kick)

F – Petit-Frere 20 run (Kolodny kick)

F – Jenkins 74 run (Kolodny kick)

M – Berge 12 pass from Bentz (Berge kick)

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