Hauppauge Football Holds Off Smithtown East

Big plays powered the Hauppauge Eagles to a 17-13 victory over Smithtown East in Saturday’s Division II football opener at Smithtown.

Dominic Confredo’s 74-yard touchdown run in the third quarter gave the Eagles a 10-0 lead, and quarterback Corey Wood’s 58-yard scoring run early in the fourth — three plays after the Bulls had cut the Eagles’ lead to three points — regained the 10-point cushion, which was needed after the Bulls scored later in the fourth.

Wood ran for 115 yards on 12 carries and threw for 53 yards. Confredo had 94 yards rushing on six carries and 14 yards on two receptions.

“Those two guys were great,” said Hauppauge coach Joe Patrovich. “Dominic is our heart and soul, and Corey has certainly proved to be a pretty good one, too.”

Patrovich said that Wood’s long scoring run, which answered a 14-yard touchdown run by the Bulls’ Jake Koppelman, was the turning point of the game. “That was huge, huge,” Patrovich said. “The momentum had shifted without question.”

“When you give up things like that, it’s difficult — it comes back to haunt you,” said Bulls coach Pete Melore, making his debut at the helm of the East varsity.

“I thought our effort was very, very good,” Melore said. “We moved the ball up and down the field, but we couldn’t score. We had long fields, and in high school football it’s tough to go 60-70 yards and not make a mistake. [But] we have a lot of new guys, and are going to get better every day.”

Koppelman led the Bulls with 125 yards rushing on 19 carries with two touchdowns. Quarterback Mike Buono, who entered the game late in the second quarter for starter Josh Castro, finished 7-of-13 passing for 118 yards and also rushed for 52 yards on 19 carries. Castro was 3-of-4 passing for 21 yards.

“We’re going to keep working them both,” Melore said of his QB tandem. “I liked what I saw when Mike went out there, so I kept him out there. So we’re going to go week by week.”

The Eagles scored on their opening drive, getting three points on a 26-yard field goal by Dan King.  The Bulls then drove inside the Eagles’ 10 but a fake field goal came up short of the first down. The halftime score was 3-0 Hauppauge.

The Bulls turned the ball over on downs at the start of the third quarter, and three plays later, Confredo broke a couple of tackles and burst into the secondary for his long scoring run and a 10-point Eagles lead. Buono completed two passes on the ensuing drive to set up Koppelman’s first touchdown, which pulled the Bulls back within three, 10-7.

Wood scored on his long run on a keep right, but the 10-point edge didn’t last long. A 51-yard screen pass from Buono to Eric Binder led to Koppelman’s second touchdown run, this one from 11 yards out. The fake PAT failed, and the Bulls trailed by four, 17-13.

The Bulls forced a punt and had one last chance to score, driving to the Hauppauge 32 with 2:28 to play. Buono’s sideline pass to Tim Devlin on fourth-and-seven was long enough, but the side judge ruled the ball was caught out of bounds.

Patrovich was proud of the effort under hot, trying conditions. “We lost about five guys in the second half, with cramps a couple of injuries,” he said. “We played with five backups, but they did a good job and did what they had to do. And I’m proud to get the first win.”

The Eagles will host Riverhead on Friday night, and the Bulls will host North Babylon on Saturday afternoon.