Marines Fall Short In Conference II Showdown

This story was written by George Wallace.

Anyone expecting a helmet-to-helmet showdown under the lights Friday night between Long Beach and MacArthur, two 5-1 Conference II powerhouse teams, would have been disappointed.

Basically, the showdown fizzled. 

With a 31-7 win over the Marines, MacArthur improved to 6-1 as the team heads to the regular season finale against conference leading Garden City next Saturday. Long Beach, which hosts a strong Wantagh squad Saturday, fell to 5-2.

From the opening play of the game, MacArthur was in command. A 43-yard scamper by running back Tom Kelleher the first time he touched the football set the tone for the Generals’ offense. Kelleher‘s big run to open the game culminated, six plays later, in his sixteenth touchdown this season, putting MacArthur in the driver’s seat to stay at the 9:41 mark.

The Generals’ defense held a normally potent Marines squad pretty much in check. Quarterback Adam Salvadori was intercepted on a pass up the middle on Long Beach‘s first possession. On the next possession, Marines running backs James Forkin and Chris Parler were stymied. 

It was a tough evening for Long Beach, especially after coming up just short against Garden City the previous week, drawing to within two points with six seconds on the clock but falling short on a two-point conversion attempt. 

It never got that close against the Generals. 

“We didn’t play how we wanted,” said Long Beach head coach Scott Martin. “We play a spread offense, and they’ve come down from Conference I where they see a lot of that. They threw a lot of blitzes at us; it was confusing up front. MacArthur’s allowed the least amount of points in the county this season, so far. They’ve got a great offense.”

To their credit, however, the Marines defense didn’t make things easy for the Generals. During one first-quarter drive, the home team was stopped on the one-yard line; on another possession they had to settle for a fifteen-yard field goal. Matt Firpo notched eight tackles on defense, and tackle Sam Golding chipped in six.

But with a successful scoring drive in each quarter for MacArthur and three goose eggs on the board after three quarters of play, Long Beach’s lone tally — a run into the end zone for Salvadori after a scoring drive that saw running back Billy Kane amass 60 yards — was all coach Scott Martin’s squad could muster to cheer the Marines faithful.

“Getting on the board was a moral victory for us,“ he said. “It showed we weren’t going to quit. We kept on fighting.“