Clarkstown North Football Looks For First Win Against N. Rockland Since 1979

The Clarkstown High School North football team hasn't beaten North Rockland since 1979, but it has a chance to break that streak in front of its home fans tonight at 7 in New City.

"Kids are fired up to have an opportunity to beat them," said North Coach Joe Trongone. "It's a big game. It's early in the season, but it's still a big game."

North Rockland Coach Joe Casarella wasn't aware that it had even been that long, but said keeping the streak alive isn't of any concern to the Red Raiders.

"That never even crossed my mind," Casarella said. "We're just trying to get through one game, and North just so happens to be next on the schedule."

While North Rockland has dominated the past couple of decades of play, it comes into Thursday night's game 0-1 thanks to a 14-7 loss at home last Sunday to New Rochelle.

"They're well-coached," Trongone said. "No matter what happened this past Sunday, they're going to be more than prepared for Thursday."

Although, Casarella said the preparation this week has been a bit rushed because of the first two games' scheduling.

"The fact that it's on a Thursday and we played on Sunday, we just had to cram a lot in this week," he said.

Conversely, the Rams come into their home opener after a 47-14 drubbing of Gorton High School last Saturday. Still, Trongone wasn't completely pleased with the effort.

"We didn't play a solid football game," he said. "Coming off two good scrimmages, and playing like we did on Saturday, we were able to win. We still have a lot of areas to improve."

The biggest thing North needs to improve on, Trongone said, was execution. He didn't think the team executed as well as it can. He also said his team committed a lot of bad penalties throughout the game.

"You can't make those errors against North Rockland," he said. "They capitalize on your mistakes."

The Rams dominated the ground game in their season opener, rushing for 231 yards and seven touchdowns on 36 carriers while the defense held the Gorton offense scoreless through the first three periods en route to a 47-0 advantage heading into the final quarter.

Six Rams each had multiple carries, with Korey Johnson leading the team with 12. Tareek Turner, Dan Macalena and Billy DeLay each had five carries. Brian Rinciari had just two carriers, but led the team with 55 yards. He also scored one touchdown, as did Nick Termine, Nick Windman, Macalena, DeLay and Rinciari. Turner led the Rams with two scores.

"We have a lot of guys that can carry the football," Trongone. "We can be a balanced offense, though. The score got a little bit out of control early, so we opted to keep the ball on the ground."

Quarterback Luke Sullivan completed three of his six passes against Gorton for 67 yards. Casarella said Sullivan is "an excellent quarterback." Turner caught two of those passes for 52 yards.

Turner is "more of a speed guy," Trongone said, and is most effective when he gets to the outside of the field. He uses Macalena to pound it up the middle, while he said Rinciari is a shifty back. But Trongone also said that Sullivan "can air it out" as well, and that the Rams can be a more pass-oriented or simply balanced offense.

In its first game, North Rockland's offense ended up balanced, but unfortunately for the Red Raiders, its balance only provided 128 total yards of offense to New Rochelle's 328, including 283 yards on the ground. The Red Raiders attempted 15 passes compared to its 28 rushes, ending up with 68 passing yards and 60 rushing.

The feature back for North Rockland is Jonathan McCoy, who rushed 17 times for 72 yards in the loss, while scoring the only touchdown for North Rockland. Quarterback Matt Lonergan's favorite target is receiver Terrell Smith, who hauled in six of Lonergan's seven completions.

Trongone expects North Rockland to primarily stick with the running game Thursday night.

"Traditionally they like to pound it," he said. "We've got to play aggressive. If there's an opportunity for a turnover, we've got to take it."

Trongone said North Rockland, even an 0-1 North Rockland team, will give the Rams a good early-season test.

"We usually play them in our second game every year," he said. "It's under lights, coming off a big win. It's a good home opener."