Westhampton Beach Football Falls to Islip, 40-35

Westhampton Beach’s football team had the lead going into halftime against Islip Friday, but mental errors once again cost the Hurricanes the game in a 40-35 loss.

“I thought we had some really good moments, but we had way too many mistakes on defense and special teams that we will clean up,” said senior wide receiver Drew Calloway, who scored three touchdowns on the night. “I thought our pass game was great in the first half since Islip was so focused on the run — I was seeing Islip focusing on Brody, giving me more chances to get open — and the home crowd was super loud and supportive.”

Senior quarterback Finn Drake made a pass to senior running back Brody Schaffer for a 74-yard catch-and-run for the game’s opening score before connecting with Calloway for 64- and 60-yard touchdowns.

“I loved to see it,” said Drake, who recently took over as field general for Calloway’s younger brother, Jake. “I think I’m adjusting to the pressure and have been playing more calm. I am also growing confidence in the position and learning new things like being able to read defenses and coverages, which is helping a lot.”

Westhampton (1-2) was up 7-0 after the first, and took a 21-13 lead into halftime thanks to extra-point kicks by Schaffer.

“I really like having Finn as our quarterback. He sees the field well and knows ours plays forward and back,” Calloway said. “It was a little different switching from a lefty quarterback to a righty, but Finn is doing great and he can run and throw very well. It also felt great for me scoring each time and being able to help our team as much as I could, but we have to be sharper on all sides of the ball. We are making a lot of mental mistakes, so that is a big detail we are going to focus on.”

Just three seconds into the third, Islip (2-1) recovered the Hurricanes’ second fumble of the game on the opening kickoff, and capitalized, successfully completing a two-point conversion attempt to tie the game. Westhampton marched up the field on their ensuing possession, but missed a field goal attempt, and Islip made their next chance with the ball count, though junior wide receiver and cornerback Nathaniel LoGelfo blocked the extra-point kick. LoGelfo also made several key plays during the game, including breaking up an Islip pass attempt on third down with 38.2 seconds left in the opening stanza.

“I think we played a great first half — our defense was making stops and giving more opportunities for the offense — but we started to take our foot off the gas once we got ahead, and that’s really what killed us,” Drake said. “Then in the second half we started to make more mental errors and we lacked effort.”

Finn connected with junior wide receiver Patrick Fay in the end zone for the Hurricanes’ next score, but Islip put two more on the board in the fourth before Calloway’s last touchdown on a five-yard pass from Drake.

“We just have to clean up a couple of things and we would have had a different outcome,” Calloway said. “They won’t be easy, but we just have to work harder as a team and put in the work in practice so in-game it will pay off. I feel like we have the talent, and we still are a young team, but we can be successful the rest of the season.”

The senior said he sees improvement each week, and looks to see it again this weekend when Westhampton travels to rival Sayville (3-0) Saturday, October 5, for a 6 p.m. contest.

“We are trying to improve every week and still being a new team, we don’t have the perfect chemistry yet, but we will get better as the season goes on,” Calloway said.

“I think we learned we have to play a full 48 minutes and really dig deep inside ourselves to play the entire game,” Drake added. “I think the mental errors come from our lack of experience. Not enough of us have played in the close games where things get tough and you have to battle it out.”

Westhampton travels to East Hampton (2-1) next weekend for a 3 p.m. matchup against the Bonackers, and kick off homecoming weekend with a 6 p.m. game against Hauppauge (2-1) on Friday, October 18.