Undefeated Carey ends Riverhead’s season with 20-6 win in L.I. Championship

There will be no more bell-ringing in Riverhead this year.

A very promising season ended on a bitter note for the Blue Waves in their final game as they came up short in the Class II Long Island Championship, 20-6 against H. Frank Carey High School of Franklin Square.

Riverhead, for the second straight season, will have to settle for Division II Suffolk County Champions and clearly, that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“The community should be proud of these kids,” head coach Leif Shay said. “They are back-to-back Suffolk County champions; especially with the amount of kids we lost though out the course of the season. The resiliency and the desire of these kids is something to be proud of.”

The Blue Waves played without senior halfback Jeremiah Cheatom and senior linebacker Taheim McKay on Friday, both ruled ineligible for academic reasons. Seniors Andrew Kinard and Mikey Curtis could not play due to disciplinary action. They lost their starting guard, Troy Trent, in the beginning of the season. Starting senior wide receiver and cornerback Dan Czelatka lost his season because of an elbow injury. And quarterback Cody Smith missed time when he injured his eye.

Nevertheless, they battled through adversity and ended up defending their Suffolk County championship. The seniors will walk away from the program with two rings on their hand. They are the first Riverhead football team to ever repeat as Suffolk County champions.

“I’m so proud of my guys,” senior Jaron Greenidge said. “We fought shorthanded today and all season long, overcoming obstacle after obstacle along the away. We did it when nobody thought we could,” he said.

“We learned that together, we could do anything. We fought our way to the top like the band of brothers that we are,” Greenidge said.

“All the seniors, Jaron Greenidge, Cody Smith, Mike Van Bommel, they were all waiting for their turn,” Shay said. “They took advantage of the opportunity and led the team through every battle.”

But unfortunately, the senior leadership wasn’t enough to stop a hot Carey team. Carey, playing in their first Long Island Championship since 1978, put the finishing touches on a superb undefeated season by taking advantage of special teams errors in the first half. Carey capitalized by recovering a short squib kick over the first line that landed near the sideline without a Blue Wave in sight. The Blue Waves also gave up big yardage on punt returns and failed to get a punt off in one instance, turning the ball over in their own territory.

The blunders led to first half Carey scores, putting them ahead 20-0 at halftime.

Riverhead (10-2) finally got on the board in the second half by way of play-action pass. Smith found a wide-open Greenidge for a 14-yard score. But the offense couldn’t get anything else going when they needed to.

Ryun Moore played a terrific game in place of Jeremiah Cheatom, running the ball 20 times for 126 yards, but it wasn’t enough to scrap together more points for the Blue Waves. Riverhead was stopped in the final minutes on fourth-and-7 inside of the Carey 10-yard line to try to cut the lead.

Despite the score, the Blue Waves out-gained the Seahawks in offense 316 to 268. They only converted one 4th down attempt out of three, whereas Carey was successful in three of four attempts. Quarterback Ray Catapano scored the Seahawks’ first touchdown on fourth and goal on a scramble.

Catapano finished 7-for-16 passing for 92 yards with two touchdowns; one on the ground and one through the air.

With the youth on the Blue Waves, next year brings optimism and one shouldn’t be surprised if they return to this game yet again.

“We’re always optimistic,” Shay said. “We’ll let this sink in for a day or two and we’ll get back to work.”

See RiverheadLOCAL’s live blog coverage here.

Correction: Seniors Andrew Kinard and Mikey Curtis were not permitted to participate in the L.I. Championship football game due to disciplinary action by the school district, according to Riverhead Schools Superintendent Nancy Carney. They were not “dismissed from the team” as stated in the originally published version of this article.

“Both were disciplined for their actions,” said Carney, who said she is prohibited from discussing details. “As per school policy, neither could participate in the football program as a result of the disciplinary actions,” she said.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
Click thumbnails to enlarge images
{gallery}2013/slideshows/2013_1129_football{/gallery}