As SWR football deals with injuries, recruited depth aims to keep season alive

With a glowing rainbow in the backdrop and a nor’easter starting to make its way to Long Island, Shoreham-Wading River football battled wind and rain Friday night under the lights at Mt. Sinai.

The constant downpour made for a sloppy, defense-oriented performance by the two teams, with the Mustangs coming out on top, 12-0. 

Shoreham-Wading River, down three running backs already due to injury, was not equipped for a ground-and-pound game it needed to be. Losing their senior leader and bruising back Lucas Diamond hurt the most of all. 

“We’re a passing team,” SWR first-year head coach Paul Longo said. “We have one of the best quarterbacks in the county, and you saw it, every ball the wind knocked down.

With Noah Gregorek under center, the Wildcats turned to sophomore Javon Wright to carry the load at running back. It was his first snaps at the position all year. 

“Javon is a wide receiver,” Longo said. “He’s never played running back, but he did what we asked of him, and I think given the circumstances he did really well.  He just doesn’t have the reps yet to figure out when to hit the hole and which hole to hit.”

To have three bona fide running backs on your roster is a luxury, and to be able to have Wright step in and still learn the position shows the depth of the team. But before offseason workouts, that depth was in question.

When Longo first set foot at Shoreham-Wading River, he had to understand the pulse of the football program there, and it was shocking, to say the least. Coming over from William Floyd, a Division I school that won 15 Suffolk County championships and five Long Island championships under his leadership, there were doubts whether SWR could field a JV team.

“We had 21 returning players in total,” Longo said. “It wasn’t something I was used to. We had too many kids at Floyd when I was there. We had to cut players. This was all new to me being at this level.”

The championship-pedigree coach put his head down and recruited. 

“I went to other sporting events to see who the athletes are,” Longo said. “I went to phys-ed class. I tried to get everyone I could on the football team. Some kids couldn’t make every practice, but we made it work.”

In the end, over 50 players signed up to play football. The JV season was revived. There’s depth, there’s promise, there’s hope.

“There’s a lot of winning tradition here at Shoreham,” Longo said. “We’re trying to get back to that. I think we’re making the right steps to get there. Without injuries, I think we’d be in much better shape, but we’re still hoping to make the playoffs.”

Shoreham-Wading River (2-2) took down Babylon in a 52-45 thriller and blew out Wyandanch before losing to Glenn and Mt. Sinai this season. 

In that win over Babylon, Gregorek, a junior, threw for 348 yards and six touchdowns. He’s capable of that type of game any given day.

“I think we have an electric junior class and next year we will put on a show,” Longo said. “We’re already seeing that impact in every game that we play.”

A win over Sayville on Oct. 9 would almost certainly put the Wildcats into the playoff conversation. 

“They’re a tough team,” Longo said. “But we’re just as tough. We’re going to go into that game with the same confidence we head into every game and make the plays when we need them.”