'Canes Weather the Storm, Top Smithtown West for First Home Victory

This past weekend’s 48-27 victory over Smithtown West marked a few firsts for the Westhampton Beach football team. It was the Hurricanes first home victory of the season, after suffering a 23-20 loss to East Islip a week prior. It was also the first time for many of its coaches and players to play in a game that was suspended and restarted the following morning.

Poor weather was in the forecast for Friday with the leftover remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia wreaking havoc in the region. Some within Suffolk County were surprised games were still allowed to be played after New York State Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley.

Through the first half of Friday night’s game in Westhampton Beach there was a light rain that fell but nothing too bad. By halftime, though, and the Hurricanes out in front, 34-14, the rain started to pick up. When both teams came out of the locker rooms for the second half, the rain had calmed down a bit, but with 1:12 remaining in the third quarter, following a Smithtown West touchdown, there was a flash in the distance that was deemed lightning. Coaches and officials met on the field for a lengthy conversation, and as a heavy bout of rain came in it was decided that the game would be suspended and restarted at 9 o’clock the following morning.

The weather 12 hours or so later hadn’t really improved all that much with still a steady rain falling, but with no lightning, both teams were able to finish out the game. Nolan Michalowski was strong on the Hurricanes drive on Saturday’s restart and capped a long drive with a 2-yard touchdown run that extended his team’s lead back to 20 points at 41-21. Senior Kevin Smith then caught a 6-yard touchdown from classmate Will Gambino just a few minutes later to really put the ’Canes out in front, 48-21, at which point both teams played much of their reserves.

Westhampton Beach head coach Bryan Schaumloffel called Friday night’s suspension and Saturday morning’s restart out of the ordinary for him and everyone involved. There have been a few lightning delays in the playoffs that he recalled where there is a little more leeway then in terms of the game being able to play that night following a lengthy delay, but neither he, nor his players for that matter, have ever had to stop a game and finish it the next day. He agreed it gave his team, the home team, a big advantage.

“They’ve got to drive all the way back to Smithtown where they’re probably getting home around 10:30 p.m.,” he said. “I think we had a good plan coming into [Saturday]. We were going to start the game today just like a regular game. We did our regular pregame warmup and our kids were ready to go. But I think it’s probably pretty tough for them to come back on short notice.

“They have some good kids, though,” Schaumloffel continued. “Their quarterback is pretty good, receiver is outstanding. They can strike at an instant, so I was a little nervous only being up by 13. Two touchdowns to a team like that is not unreasonable for them to come back to, so we kind of preached that in the locker room, that that opening drive had to be a dominating performance, to score a touchdown, and they did.”

“Of course, last night when coach brought us the news, we headed right home, rested our bodies as much as we could, got some sleep and came right back in the morning,” said Michalowski, who rushed for 187 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries and also caught two touchdowns in the victory.

Westhampton Beach scored 21 unanswered points to start the game, but as Schaumloffel mentioned, the Bulls had a potent offensive attack with quarterback Brayden Stahl and receiver Jack Melore. Late in the first quarter, just as time expired, Melore took a screen pass 86 yards for a touchdown. Then, early in the second quarter, Melore made a highlight reel play with a leaping one-handed grab near the goal line where he rolled into the end zone untouched for another touchdown.

But only 10 seconds later did Gambino hook up with Michalowski on a 60-yard touchdown completion, and then Gambino ran nine yards for a touchdown just before the end of the first half to make a 20-point game, 34-14.

When all was said and done, Michalowski rushed for 187 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries and also caught two touchdowns while Gambino threw 10 for 14 for 152 yards and four touchdowns.

“We adjusted the game plan because of the weather,” Michalowski said after the game on Saturday. “I give all credit to my linemen. I couldn’t do it without the big boys up front. It’s awesome running behind my brothers. It’s always fun.”

The 27 points were the second lowest point total of the season for Smithtown West thus far, with 7 against Sayville on September 13 being the lowest.

“We didn’t really change much, just stayed calm, work on what we know to do and stick to our basics,” senior linebacker Riley Miller said of the Hurricane defense.

“All week in practice we worked on zone coverages,” senior safety Gianni Amodemo said. “We worked on our different varieties of coverages and we executed last night and this morning. Everything went to plan. They got us on a couple of routes, but overall I think we played well.”

Schaumloffel was particularly impressed with how his players came out and played following a tough home loss to East Islip the week before.

“Came out of last week licking our wounds a little bit,” he said. “East Islip is a tough team. It was a tough physical game and we preached from Monday that this was going to show a little bit of our character and how we were going to respond after that tough home loss. I think our kids did a great job of coming out and dominating the game from start to finish.

“I think my coaches did a great job preparing for the game,” Schaumloffel added. “Offensively, Mark Johnson did a great job preparing, having a plan to take advantage of our strengths and to put points on the board. Defensively, I think they had three plays against us.”

The 3-1 ’Canes will host Hauppauge for their homecoming game this Friday night at 6 p.m. and players and coaches are expecting it to be another competitive Division III game.

“They’ve got at least four former head coaches on their staff, so they’ve got some really good coaches, and traditionally Hauppauge has been a pretty tough little team,” Schaumloffel said.