On the eve of one of the biggest games in Sachem football history, the 2013 team is probably feeling the same as the team did in 1995, the only other year Sachem played in a Long Island championship. They probably have similar thoughts about trying to win the program’s first Long Island crown, about trying to leave their historical stamp on the program’s long and illustrious history.
What many players may not realize, considering they were either not born or just an infant 18 years ago, was that there were many similarities between that season and this one.
Similar to today’s team, the 1995 squad was packed with talent at multiple skill positions. There was Matt Clark, a phenomenal quarterback, Dave Caputo, an outstanding All-Long defensive back, Lou Antonetti, and Ralph Gazzillo, an All-Long Island lineman. Then there was James O’Neal, who went on to win the Hansen Award that season, and juniors like Doug Shanahan, who is arguably the greatest two-sport athlete Sachem has ever seen.
That team opened the year with a 22-19 loss to Lindenhurst and lost again in Week 5 to Longwood, 35-14, in what would soon became the turning point of the season.
“Sachem is like that wise older brother that you never want to anger because you know he’ll come back and put you in your place sooner or later,” said O’Neal.
Like Sachem’s 2013 team, the Flaming Arrows of ’95 had the luck of playing one of the teams they lost to during the regular season in the playoffs.
The second time around, in the first round of the Suffolk County Division I playoffs, Lindenhurst took the brunt of a typical O’Neal performance. He rushed for three touchdowns, including a 10- yard scramble on the first play of overtime to give the Flaming Arrows a 22-14 overtime victory, and he had 35 carries for 274 yards.
In the huddle before scoring the overtime touchdown, O’Neal looked at the field and the distance to the goal line.
“We have to go 90 yards?” he said.
Clark turned to him and said no, the actual distance was just 10 yards.
“Oh, give me the ball,” O’Neal said confidently.
Of course he would get the ball in the most pivotal part of Sachem’s season and of course he would bust through to score. On the following series, Sachem stopped Lindenhurst on four downs to win.
Like the previous week, Sachem was given the task of beating another team that got the best of it during the regular season. The last time Sachem played Longwood, the Flaming Arrows were left wounded, mentally and physically distraught at 3-2 and in sixth place in Division I. It had been over a month since their last loss and since O’Neal’s powerful speech to win at all costs following that defeat. The Flaming Arrows trounced Longwood, 21-0, and showed who the real powerhouse was in Division I that year. It was Sachem’s first Division I title since the triumphant Rutger’s Trophy season in 1986, as well as its first shutout of the season.
Clark led a 14-play drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by O’Neal in the second quarter that turned out to be all the Flaming Arrows would need. O’Neal scored two other short-yardage touchdowns in the game as well. Caputo intercepted two passes which set up both of Sachem’s final scoring drives. This set up a battle with Lawrence, Nassau County’s Conference I champ.
In front of a packed house at Hofstra University’s Shuart Stadium, Sachem players’ names were called during introductions and Lawrence head coach Rich Mollo remembers freezing from standing there while name after name was read.
“It seemed like they had 200 guys,” Mollo joked.
It was a hectic week of practices and traveling for Sachem. Fusaro wanted to bring the guys to Hofstra to get used to the field, but Hempstead is a long drive from Lake Ronkonkoma, especially on an uncomfortable school bus. Fusaro set up a live scrimmage with Joe Cipp and his Bellport team that was playing in the Class II Long Island title game.
“Looking back on it, I should not have done it,” Fusaro said. “Jimmy got soar and strained his hamstring. It was a war I hadn’t anticipated. Joe talked me into making the scrimmage live and at the time it seemed like a good thing to do.”
Going into the game, Sachem knew very well that Lawrence was their equivalent in Nassau County, a powerful, talented team that would play as hard as anyone out there. Vaughn Sanders wasn’t James O’Neal, but he was a solid back and went on to play in the NFL. They also had quarterback Greg Nunn, fullback Bashawn Dixon and a pair of receivers in Kenroy Wallace and Chamari Willis.
Lawrence scored on its first possession, always a dagger in a playoff game since everyone is jacked up to start and anxious to get the game going smoothly. The Golden Tornado’s manufactured a 93-yard drive on nine plays, which included a 41-yard run by Nunn, then a 14-yard touchdown carry by him shortly after. They missed the extra point and led 6-0. Sachem’s only touchdown came with 10:58 to go in the first half when Clark scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, finishing a 66-yard drive.
Nunn scored again, this time on a 5-yard run, with 47 seconds left and Sanders converted the two-point conversion attempt, giving Lawrence a 14-7 lead, which stuck for the rest of the game.
The main turning point came in the third quarter. Sachem had possession of the ball for basically the entire duration of that quarter, but fell short on a 4th-and-3 play at Lawrence’s 10 yard line. The drive took up 21 plays, 77 yards and all but 30 seconds of the third quarter. Lawrence’s Dixon stopped O’Neal on the 3-yard rushing attempt and the wind was taken fully out of Sachem’s sails.
“Not paying attention to details cost us a score there,” said Sachem coach Dave Falco, who was an assistant on that squad.
“That’s pretty much the only thing I remember from the game, that drive,” Gazzillo said. “We grinded it out. We were getting chunks of yards and we got to the point where it felt like they couldn’t stop us. The most demoralizing part is that we used the entire third quarter and came away with nothing. We gave everything and came away with nothing.”
Sachem had a chance to comeback after getting the ball back with 3:44 left in the game at their own 44-yard line. They made it as far as Lawrence’s 12 yard line in the final minute of the game on the legs of O’Neal, but were eventually stopped for good and haven’t been back since.
This year’s squad is already past the hump of winning a county title, has battled back against a team that has beat it a number of times in year’s past, is tight knit and close and has some extremely talented players on its roster. The only thing they don’t want to mimic from ’95 is the championship defeat. On Saturday at Stony Brook, Sachem will look to win for the current team, for the past players who never got a chance to win a Long Island championship and for the future players who will one day inevitably add to the history that is Sachem football.
Editor’s note: A majority of this text and these quotes appeared in my book “Sachem High School Football: The history of the Flaming Arrows”.
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro