Sachem Football Week 4: Inside the Arrows

A look at the historical stats and notes from this week’s football action at Sachem East and Sachem North.

Notes on the Nor’Easter

Sachem North has won 34 of its last 38 games dating back to 2009.
North and Connetquot are the only undefeated teams remaining in Suffolk County’s Division I at 4-0. There are still at least two 4-0 teams in every division in Suffolk and Nassau right now.
The 21 points scored by Sachem North are the lowest the Flaming Arrows have put up this season. The 14 points they allowed tie the lowest as well (14 last week against Pat-Med).
The estimated attendance of 2,500 at this year’s Nor’Easter is down between 500-1,000 from last year’s playoff showdown between East and North.
This is the 12th time in Sachem North’s history the program has started a season 4-0.
Sachem North now leads Sachem East, 4-1, in the all-time series. Sachem North has outscored Sachem East, 133-67.
Sachem North is now 34-14-5 in Week 4 games.

On the field

Steven Casali was held to 83 yards, his lowest offensive output this season. He previously rushed for yards of 239, 160 and 112 leading up to Week 4. Casali added to his program-leading rushing yardage totals and now has 2,330 career yards.
Kevin Bragaglia recorded his fourth interception this season. He’s still five away from tying the single-season Sachem record (9), set by Bryan Gil in 2004.
Bragaglia’s 83-yard kick return for a touchdown to open the game was Sachem North’s longest scoring play of the 2012 season so far.
Mike O’Donnell’s 50-yard touchdown pass to Bragaglia was Sachem North’s longest touchdown pass of the season.
Danny Wolff’s 54-yard pass to Brian Balsamo was the longest play converted against Sachem North this season and one of the longest passes in Wolff and Balsamo’s career.
East outgained North in total yardage, 269-219.
Malik Pierre’s 68-yard rush ties the longest rush Sachem North has had this season (T. Crossan had 68 yard gain against Pat-Med in Week 3).
Sachem North has scored 176 points this season, the most in Suffolk County and second most on Long Island (Lawrence, 207).
This was Sachem North’s second straight season competing in a Great American Rivalry Series game sponsored by the U.S. Marines. Last year North beat Brentwood and also collected a game trophy and championship hats.

The Bryan Morris File

We have some updates on the Morris kicking stats thanks to Newsday’s Andy Slawson… the information on Newsday.com that we were originally basing the numbers on were not completely updated. Long Island’s leader in PATs and kicking points is Sean Mollar from East Islip. He finished his career with 121 PATs and 189 kicking points. Through Week 4, Morris has 103 PATs (third in LI history) and 106 career kicking points. So Morris is 18 PATs from tying mollar and 19 from setting the Long Island record, which will happen at some point in 2012.
Morris also attempted the second field goal in his career on Saturday. He missed wide left, but had the distance for the 37-yard attempt. He is now 1-for-2 with a percentage of .500.

The Brian Balsamo File

Last week, Sachem East receiver Brian Balsamo set the single-game and career receiving records for East in their win over Commack. With his 9 receptions, 141 yards and 1 touchdown catch against North, he now has 49 receptions, 870 yards and 6 touchdowns. For 2012, he has 18 receptions, 395 yards and 3 touchdowns, all among tops in Suffolk County.

-Words and photo by Chris R. Vaccaro