Football: Fonseca, Syron help Porters spin past Monarchs
In the searing heat and humidity, Jordan Fonseca turned the spin cycle on high.
Fonseca’s athleticism and dazzling runs, complete with razor-sharp cuts and lightning-quick spins off tacklers, dazzled on Friday night as he helped Greenport/Southold/Mattituck’s high school football team to a season-opening 40-0 blowout of Bishop McGann-Mercy at Harold T. Murray Memorial Field in Riverhead.
There wasn’t much Fonseca, or teammate Keegan Syron, didn’t do for the Porters as they scored two touchdowns apiece.
An athletic leaping grab for an interception by Fonseca set up Syron’s first touchdown when he bounced outside to the right and dashed 85 yards for the score 5 minutes, 10 seconds into the second quarter.
After Mercy failed to pick up a first down on the next possession, Fonseca showed his elusiveness, zigzagging his way to the end zone on a 65-yard punt return.
Those big plays were all that separated the teams as Greenport held a 14-0 lead at halftime.
Then the Porters pulled away. Syron capped the first series of the third quarter with a 12-yard touchdown run.
Fonseca added to the lead in the fourth with what had to be considered the play of the night. Taking the snap from center, the junior bolted to the right side and wowed his own bench by spinning off tacklers on the way to an electrifying 41-yard score.
On the kickoff that followed, Tashan Lawrence, drove a low bouncer off Mercy’s Alan Rodriguez and Lawrence fell onto the ball.
Greenport coach Jack Martilotta inserted players from the junior varsity team into the game in the fourth quarter. One of those players, freshman quarterback Ahkee Anderson, ran for his first varsity touchdown four plays after that kickoff for a 34-0 lead.
Anderson’s first career touchdown pass, with 4:01 left to play, came with some controversy. Scrambling to his left, Anderson floated a 44-yard scoring pass to Brandon Clark. It was Greenport’s only pass of the night, but the timing of it came into question with the win safe in hand for the Porters. One of Mercy’s assistant coaches, Mike Quick, apparently took exception to it and walked onto the field. Martilotta walked out toward him before officials interceded. After the game, though, both coaches were seen hugging and smiling.
Greenport’s defense limited Mercy to 126 yards of offense. Twelve of Mercy’s running plays went for negative yardage.
Both teams had quarterbacks make their first varsity starts — Greenport junior Sean Sepenoski and Mercy sophomore Ryan Razzano. Razzano (7-for-11, 73 yards, one interception) was taken out of the game in the second quarter to undergo a concussion protocol, but later returned.
The start of the game was pushed back a half-hour because of a modified heat alert on a day when the temperature was in the 90s.
Photo caption: Greenport/Southold/Mattituck’s Jordan Fonseca takes down Bishop McGann-Mercy’s Max Beyrodt. (Credit: Robert O’Rourk)
