MacArthur Deals Garden City Their First Loss

The final game of the regular season on Saturday pitted the undefeated Garden City Trojans against the MacArthur Generals, a team with only one loss. In a battle for first place, and the number 1 seed in the upcoming playoffs, it was the Generals winning the game 24-17 on a 17 yard touchdown catch with only 1:29 remaining in the game. Although the Trojans took their first loss of the season they will still go into the playoffs as the top seed. The seeds for the playoffs are determined based on the power ratings within the conference because of the unbalanced Nassau Conference II schedule.

The game was a hard fought battle in the trenches that saw the teams gaining an identical 295 total yards on the day. For Garden City the bulk of the yardage came through the air with Brett Stewart throwing for 264 yards, the second highest total in Trojan history as per statistician Jake White. On the MacArthur side of the ball it was more balanced with quarterback Gerard Cunningham throwing for 168 and tailback Tom Kelleher running for 121.

The game opened with the teams trading field position on their opening drives as both defenses flexed their muscle early. MacArthur took their second possession and marched into Trojan territory with the big play a long pass to Kevin Olsen to put the ball at the four yard line.  From there it was Kelleher punching it in for the four yard touchdown.

In the second quarter Garden City began to move the ball with quick passes to Ed Blatz and Spencer Bais. The big play came on a pass and run by Justin Guterding that he turned into a 33 yard touchdown. Also in the quarter Gerard Smith hit a 33 yard field goal after the Generals defense held the Trojans after they had a first and goal from the 3 yard line.

Sandwiched between the Garden City scores was another good drive engineered by Cunningham that resulted in Kelleher’s second four yard touchdown run of the game. The half ended with MacArthur leading the Trojans 14-10.

The third quarter continued to be a battle of field position as the teams traded early punts before MacArthur cashed in with a 32 yard field goal to go up by a touchdown.

On the ensuing drive Garden City began at the twenty and quickly moved up field with passes to Guterding and Blatz. From their own 45 yard line Stewart ran a play action and hit Guterding in the left flat. With open space in front of him Guterding took off into the Generals secondary making several MacArthur defenders miss tackles along the way as he scored his second touchdown of the game, this one from 55 yards out. The PAT by Smith made it a 17-17 game.

With the game on the line the Trojans appeared to have the go ahead score late in the fourth quarter on a 71 yard run by Stewart but it was called back because of a questionable holding penalty. When the refs added an unsportsmanlike foul on the Garden City sideline the ball was pushed back even further. The Generals defense forced a punt that resulted in terrific field position with under four minutes left in the game.

MacArthur ran the ball with Kelleher and he moved the sticks for a couple of first downs and pushed the ball inside the red zone to the 17 yard line. On third and seven from the 17 everyone in the stadium was looking for another run to work the clock and set up for the potential game winning field. Instead it was Cunningham dropping back and rolling to his right for Kelleher. With Kelleher covered he went to his second option, a streaking Dom Danetti across the middle and wide open in the end zone for the touchdown with a little more than a minute remaining in the game.

When Stewart’s last gasp Hail Mary for Blatz was knocked down at the 15 the Trojans had been dealt their first loss of the season.

With the top seed in the playoffs Garden City draws a home game against eight seeded Bellmore JFK next Saturday at 2:00. While second seeded MacArthur is at home to take on seventh seed Elmont.