The Riverhead Blue Waves came up short in the Class II L.I. Championship game against Garden City Saturday at Stony Brook University.
Riverhead took a 9-point lead into the locker room at halftime. But Garden City regrouped and came out blazing. The Trojans dominated Riverhead in the second half, scoring 22 unanswered points and holding Riverhead to just 14 yards on 12 carries and two first downs. The Trojans had 22 unanswered points in the second half.
“They made some adjustments in the locker room,” Coach Leif Shay said in a post-game interview. Those adjustments stopped Jeremiah Cheatom cold, and the Waves could not move the ball downfield.
“We made mistakes and they cost us. We beat ourselves,” Shay said.
Riverhead, which has made it to the LIC only three times in the history of the playoff, has lost twice to Garden City. The Trojans blanked the Waves in 2003.
2012 marked Garden City’s fourth consecutive Nassau County championship and its 14th trip to the LIC, where it has a 5-9.championship.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” Shay said. “We are Suffolk County champions. This is one of only three Riverhead teams to make it to the L.I. Championship ever, so that’s pretty good,” he said.
Shay is second only to Coach Mike McKillop in number of years with the Riverhead football program. He is also one of the winningest coaches Riverhead football history, having compiled a career record of 88 wins and 49 losses in his 15 years as coach.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by George Faella
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