Sports
Youth League Lindy Bulldogs Upset Two Teams En Route to Championship
Trick play helps Lindy take victory from hands of defeat, leads to eventual Super Bowl win.
The 12 year old Lindenhurst Bulldogs youth football team are their league champions after upsetting the Sachem team in the semi-finals and an undefeated Cold Spring Harbor team in the "Super Bowl."
The Bulldogs first pulled off a surprise upset on the final play against Sachem in what the team is now calling "The Miracle at the Plex," held on November 3 at the PAL Complex in Holtsville.
Behind 14-13 and down to the final seven seconds, coach Ray Gianelli called for a "hook and ladder" play – the quarterback Michael Varela dropped back under pressured from a heavy blitz and passed to the tight end Vinny Sottile. As Sottile was about to be tackled from behind the line, he pitched to waiting runningback Matt Valentino, who had an open field to go all the way for the game winning touchdown.
To see how the play went down, check out the video courtesy of coach Vinny Sottile above.
A week later this past Sunday, the Bulldogs headed to Huntington to take on the Cold Spring Harbor team, who had beaten Lindenhurst earlier in the year en route to a perfect regular season, in the Super Bowl.
Lindenhurst went down 13-0 early in a cold, windy game, but rallied back for 26 straight points to take a 26-13 lead. Cold Spring Harbor made a run at it again, pushing back to within 26-19 and driving down the field until a pass was intercepted by the Bulldogs' Justin "JD" Doherty, giving the Lindenhurst team the victory and Super Bowl win.
This season's 12 year old Lindenhurst Bulldogs were: Michael Varela, Vinny Sottile, Matt Valentino, Justin Doherty, Anthony Rock, Vinny Smith, Michael Bradley, Brian Henderson, Robert Commisso, Nick Gianelli, Bobby Rolston, Ethan Moonan, Darren Greico, Jake Polansky, Sean Lennon, Chris Biraghi, Artie Garmatuk, Stephen Cicchetti, John Accardi, Adam Quintanilla, Bishop Wilkerson, Jake Winters, and Nick Rigoli.
The team was led by head coach Ray Gianelli and coaches Frank Cicchetti, Santiago Varela, Bobby Rolston, Frank Valentino and Vinny Sottile.
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