Before the season started, Riverhead head coach Leif Shay already knew that week 5 and 6 would be tough games. Newfield and Half Hollow Hills West were returning strong teams and in order to win one of those games, the Blue Waves would have to play mistake-free football.
“This is the hardest part of our schedule,” Shay said. “And we’re struggling.”
It doesn’t help that the Blue Waves are dealing with a handful of injuries either.
“We lost our starting quarterback, we lost our starting center, our starting left tackle and we had to come into this game and play a very tough team,” Shay said.
It was homecoming for the Hills West squad, and they had all the fireworks to keep the fans interested, winning 45-7 on Saturday to extend their record to 5-1.
Riverhead (2-4 Division II) was losing 35-0 at half and played their subs for most of the second half.
Though their record may reflect a poor season, they have the chance to finish 4-4. That would be enough to make the playoffs. A 3-5 record may even be enough because with such a high preseason seed, the Blue Waves had one of the toughest schedules in the division.
“Unless we play better, no game will be winnable,” Shay said. “We still have to get a passing game going. I don’t care if Bellport is 0-8, they’re still Bellport.”
The Waves will finish the season with their homecoming game against Bellport (1-5) next Saturday and an away game against Smithtown East (0-6) the following week.
“We want to win every game we can win,” Shay said. “Being the No.2 seed we’re going to be getting a lot of points. So hopefully we finish with a no. 5 seed and get a winnable playoff game.”
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Michael Hejmej
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