MAHOPAC, N.Y.—It was only one game.
But the foul odor of Sunday’s 42-7 home loss to Yorktown is one the Mahopac Wolf Pac football team is going to want to flush and forget—quickly.
In a league game the Pac needed to win in order to stay in the hunt for a home playoff game, and the team’s most important game so far, Mahopac whiffed.
The offense didn’t get a sniff of Yorktown’s red zone until the final minutes, when the score was 42-0. And the defense allowed Huskers QB Kaden Gonzalez to throw three TDs (including the 50th of his career), and Yorktown ran for three more.
Yorktown (4-2) scored on its second possession, going up 7-0 with 5:53 in the first, and that was just about all the Huskers would need. A QB run made it 14-0 to open the second, and with 3:07 in the half (after a Pac penalty extended the drive) it was 21-0 on a Gonzalez TD toss. In the final 30 seconds of the half, Yorktown delivered another blow, a Chad Bowen 19-yard run with 23 seconds, good for a 28-0 bulge at the break.
“The touchdown before the half, after that penalty (to make it 21-0), really hurt,” Pac coach Dominick DeMatteo said. “That was a tough one. Then we gave them another one (28-0). We just never stopped the bleeding.”
It got worse in the third, with the Pac fumbling on the first series. Yorktown recovered and turned the gift into points moments later on a Gonzalez 11-yard keeper, good for a 35-0 score after the PAT.
The final blow came when Mahopac went for it on a fourth-and-one from its own 25 with 7:00 left in the third, but didn’t make it, giving Yorktown the ball. Gonzalez found Brady McEnroe (two TDs) with a TD strike a play later, and it was 42-0.
With 2:39 left in the game, a short punt by the Huskers from their own end zone set Mahopac up at the Yorktown 35. Senior QB Ryan Sacco found Ronan Hunter for a TD on a fourth-and-four from the 17 for Mahopac’s only touchdown.
“We clearly were not ready to play today,” DeMatteo said. “That was evident pretty early. I think Yorktown out-coached us, and their kids out-played us.
“We ran a little, and got some passing early,” he added. “But we didn’t convert key third downs. Then we weren’t getting any first downs. We needed to score points to keep up with them… we thought we could.”
But the Pac offense couldn’t find a rhythm.
“I just saw wild inconsistency from the offense,” DeMatteo said. “The level of inconsistency was concerning.”
The coach is confident his players have the right mindset to move forward.
“This is a high-character group,” he said. “These kids love each other, they’re all in. Now we have to move on to John Jay Cross River, in a ‘must-win’ (to remain in playoff contention), league game.”
It was Senior Night for the Pac, which honored seniors Nick Tardio, Dean Ulaj, Landon Varley (all captains), Dennis Nikocevic, Kyle Pinto, Jack Clifford, Anthony Eppolito, Ryan Sacco, Danny Robinson, Ronan Hunter, Chris Russo, Michael McEnaney, Justin Sanchez, Kelbin Cruz-Quast, and Billy Baumann.
Mahopac (4-2, 3-2) hits the road this week, visiting John Jay CR on Friday at 7 p.m.
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