Is it football season yet?
This week the Suffolk County Football Coaches Association released the 2013 pre-season rankings and tentative schedules for next season.
Sachem North was picked as the No. 2 ranked team, while Sachem East is ranked No. 8.
Get your Nor’Easter banners ready, both Sachem programs will face off during Week 1 of the regular season when Sachem North travels to Sachem East for the first time since the school district split during the 2004-05 school year. The game will most likely take place on Wednesday, Sept. 11.
Sachem East and North have played five times on the football field since the split and North leads the all-time series, 4-1:
- 2005: S. East 40, S. North 13
- 2006: S. North 9, S. East 0
- 2009: S. North 33, S. East 7
- 2011: S. North 57, S. East 6
- 2012: S. North 21, S. East 14
- Total points: S. North 133, S. East 67
Sachem North returns one of the deepest rosters on Long Island for 2013. Quarterback/running back Trent Crossan, as well as running backs Malik Pierre and Anthony Ross, will anchor a team hungry to finally get over the hump and win its first Suffolk County and Long Island championship since 1995.
Sachem East is coming off its most successful season in program history having lost to William Floyd in the Suffolk County Division I championship. It loses all of its key threats except for quarterback Danny Wolff.
Sachem North will travel to William Floyd during Week 6 for its most highly contested battle of the regular season, while Sachem East hosts Floyd during Week 7 in a rematch of last year’s county final.
While William Floyd will bring back a handful of talented players as it normally does, it’s very surprising that Sachem North was not voted No. 1 for 2013. The 12 Division I coaches voted in a seeding meeting to pick the order, which has a direct effect on the schedule.
Dates and times of all regular season games have not been finalized. Bay Shore and Central Islip dropped down to Division II next season due to enrollment. The football divisions fluctuate and rotate each year so that some divisions have 12 or 14 schools.
The next major football event of 2013 is the Outback Empire Challenge sponsored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation. That will take place in June at Hofstra University and include a handful of players from both Sachem East and Sachem North.
2013 Suffolk Division I Pre-Season Football Rankings
- William Floyd
- Sachem North
- Connetquot
- Northport
- Patchogue-Medford
- Longwood
- Lindenhurst
- Sachem East
- Ward Melville
- Commack
- Brentwood
- Hills East
2013 Sachem East Schedule
- Week 1: vs. Sachem North
- Week 2: @ Commack
- Week 3: vs. Northport
- Week 4: @ Hills East
- Week 5: vs. Longwood
- Week 6: @ Ward Melville
- Week 7: vs. William Floyd
- Week 8: @ Brentwood
2013 Sachem North Schedule
- Week 1: @ Sachem East
- Week 2: vs. Connetquot
- Week 3: @ Longwood
- Week 4: vs. Northport
- Week 5: vs. Commack
- Week 6: @ William Floyd
- Week 7: @ Lindenhurst
- Week 8: vs. Patchogue-Medford
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro