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Football: Wildcats keep rolling, blast Bayport, 49-7

Shoreham-Wading River running back Chris Rosati carries the football in Saturday's win. (Credit: Bill Landon)
Shoreham-Wading River running back Chris Rosati carries the football in Saturday’s 49-7 win over Bayport-Blue Point. He scored three touchdowns in the game.(Credit: Bill Landon)

Shoreham Wading River hasn’t lost a football game since November of 2013, when they fell in the second round of the playoffs to their then nemesis, Babylon. Since that day, the seeds of a winning culture have blossomed and permeate through every player who wears the Wildcats’ blue and gold. 

They have outscored their opponents, 158-21, through four games, including Saturday’s 49-7 blasting of Bayport-Blue Point. It was the Wildcats’ 16th straight win.

Shoreham (4-0 in Suffolk County Division IV) hosted the game at Rocky Point High School, where they will play the balance of their home games while the Thomas Cutinella Memorial Field is being constructed at Shoreham Wading River High School.

The Wildcats struck first when Jon Constant bulled his way in for the score on a fourth-and-10 from the 15-yard line at the 1-minute 29-second mark.

“Today we worked hard,” Constant said. “We played well on both sides of the ball. Defensively we were just flying to the ball and we were staying on all our blocks.”

Shoreham’s Chris Gray answered next with 9:42 left in the half for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.

Quarterback Jason Curran scored next on a keeper to break out to a 21-0 lead as the senior kicker Dan Mahoney split the uprights, something he did all afternoon.

“We’re just trying to carry the momentum from last year as we’re returning the whole offensive line,” Curran said. “We just had to replace the backfield to just carry the ball behind those behemoths because they’re so good at what they do.”

Senior Chris Rosati hit the scoreboard next when he bounced to the outside, cut inside and broke free to the end zone. It was the first of three touchdown runs for Rosati, giving him 13 for the season. He ran nine times for 94 yards.

For the season, Rosati has 579 yards from 47 carries for a hefty average of 12.3 yards per carry.

Bayport (1-3) broke the ice on a scoring play where Vincent Lombardi plowed his way into the end zone.

With 1:51 left in the half, Rosati got the call again and ran the ball down to the 14-yard line. With eight seconds left, he scored and with the extra point, the Wildcats held a commanding 35-7 lead.

“They were stopping the sweep all day and my coaches said stretch it out and wait for the hole to open, Rosati said. “And then I got a great block from Kevin Cutinella.”

Bayport began to move the chains midway through the third quarter before Rosati halted the rally when he picked off a pass over the middle to put the Wildcats in excellent field position. Two plays later Rosati finished what he started, plowing his way into the end zone with 6:38 left in the third.

“We’ve kept the momentum from last year rolling and on offense we came out firing and on defense our mentality is always to stop them without any yards,” Rosati said. “We really get after it on both sides of the ball and that’s the difference.”

Joe Miller took charge under center the rest of the way and found the end zone for the final touchdown.

“This team witnessed it last year with Izzy and Danny and they’ve learned how to [put the game away] and it shows,” Wildcats coach Matt Millheiser said, referring to the graduated Isreal Squires and Danny Hughes. “As coaches we’re learning it whereas last year it was Izzy , Danny and Aaron [Harley Rey] and now we have Rosati and Jason who’s getting better and Johnny Constance is showing an ability to just be a playmaker.”