Westhampton Beach Football Team's Season Ends With Playoff Loss To Islip

The Westhampton Beach football team positioned itself nicely to make as deep a playoff run as it could, turning its season around after a 0-3 start to earn a home playoff game against Islip Friday night. But Islip proved to be up to the challenge.

The Buccaneers defeated the host Hurricanes, 20-10, to advance to the Suffolk County Division III semifinals against top seed Sayville, which will be played this Friday night at 6 p.m. The winner of that game will face the winner of East Islip/Kings Park for the county title.

“We’re not surprised that Islip played and played tough and has tough kids and is well coached and gave us a battle for 48 minutes,” Westhampton Beach head coach Bryan Schaumloffel said after the game. “Our kids battled, and we just couldn’t get it done. We made some mistakes at crucial moments and they made some plays at crucial moments and that’s the difference in high school football.”

Westhampton Beach fired the opening salvo of the game when freshman Brody Schaefer made a 36-yard field goal on the team’s opening drive to take an early 3-0 lead. But with just under 45 seconds remaining in the first half, Islip took the lead when Vitale threw a 12-yard fade into the back corner of the end zone where only his receiver, Vinny Rosselli, could make the catch. After the missed extra point, Islip led Westhampton Beach, 6-3, at halftime.

On the third play of the second half, Islip forced a fumble and recovered the ball on the Hurricanes 38-yard line. A few minutes later, Kaiden Lewis scored from seven yards out, and after the successful extra point try, Islip held a 13-3 lead. The ’Canes answered right away and drove down field and scored when senior Deegan Laube ran the ball in from eight yards out. After Schaefer’s extra point, it was just a three-point game at 13-10, with much of the second half still to be played.

With a minute remaining in the third quarter, the ’Canes found themselves driving downfield once again and even converted on a 4th and 13 when sophomore quarterback Will Gambino found senior receiver Christian Killoran over the middle of the field for a long gain. But on the very next play, Gambino fumbled the shot gun snap, Islip recovered the ball at midfield, and just a few plays later, Lewis ran 47 yards for a touchdown. After the extra point, the Buccaneers led by what was the final score.

“It’s obviously, obviously not what we expected and not what we hoped for and not what we wanted,” Schaumloffel said of the loss to Islip and the season overall. “But as I told the guys, we got a chance to play the greatest game on earth, a home playoff game with our brothers and our community and our fans. It’s just unfortunate.”

The end of each season hits home with the sobering fact that the team’s senior class will be moving on, and it was no different after Friday night’s game. The team will be saying goodbye to a talented group that included Laube, Killoran and Robert Moreland, the latter of which rushed for 1,005 yards this season. Also included in the group is Schaumloffel’s son, Erich, and a number of players who saw a lot of success on the field, including Geoff Arrasate, Jake D’Agata, Ethan Faralan, Zack Fuhrmann, Mike Hempfling, Bob Hill, Pat Gilbride, Dan Guldi, Dom Jurgel, Aidan McKeon, Frank Noto, Vin Pesce, Owen Spizuoco, Owen Travers and Nick Waszkelewicz.

“They’ve been a big part of the program,” Schaumloffel said. “They’ve been through a lot since junior high into throughout high school. They’ve seen a lot great things here, I think they wanted to have their own great things. A home playoff game, being the fourth seed and being a part of the Big 4 Champions as a top four team in the division, that’s something to be proud of. We just would have liked to be playing a couple more weeks.”