Wallkill Valley scored 34 unanswered points to beat New Milford, 34-7. The Rangers were led by quarterback Alex Mastroianni, who rushed for 228 yards, three touchdowns, and passed for two more scores.
After exchanging a couple of punts to open the game, New Milford opened the scoring on a 1-yard run by John DeSena. The score was set up on the previous play, a 7-yard run by quarterback Brian Mackey on fourth down. Mackey also completed passes to Elian Valdivia for 22 yards and to Branden Flecha for 37.
Wallkill Valley came right back on the following drive on fourth down-and-two when Alex Mastroianni went outside to the left and raced 51 yards for a touchdown to tie it at 7-7.
New Milford opened the second quarter with a drive that reached the 17-yard line. But a sack by Ryan McGuire put the Knights back to the 25 and their fourth down pass was broken up by Jon Sienkiewicz in end zone to give Wallkill Valley the ball.
This is where the game changed, as Wallkill Valley went on a classic seven minute drive, fueled by Mastroianni, who ran seven times for 46 yards and found Jake Lonsky wide open on a screen to the left flat for a 7-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left in the half. The Rangers created an opportunity, forcing a Bart Nativo fumble that Sienkiewicz recovered and ran to the 28 with 27 seconds left in the half. With eight seconds left, Mastroianni found an open Ben Mizeski over the middle just before the goal line, who did the rest, for a 15-yard touchdown to end the half with a 21-7 lead.
After exchanging drives, Wallkill Valley went on a six minute drive, capped off by a Mastroianni touchdown run of four yards. The score was set up by a 41-yard run by Mastroianni down the right sideline to make it first-and-goal on the six. The extra point failed and it was 27-6 with 36 seconds left in the quarter.
Wallkill Valley ended things on a 45-yard touchdown run by Mastroianni down the left sideline with six minutes left.
Quotes:
Wallkill Valley head coach Bobby Leach: “It’s survive and advance. We’re a good team and they’re a good team. It can be difficult when you see a team in person after only seeing them on film and we’ve never seen them before.” When asked about Mastrioanni, he simple said “he’s a man.”
Wallkill Valley quarterback Alex Mastroianni: “We were confident as the game went on and my blocking was very good. My first touchdown was a set play and I didn’t throw the ball well before on the touchdown before the half, but Ben Mizeski did a good job coming back to the ball and he simply ran into the end zone.”
Wallkill Valley cornerback Jon Sienkiewicz: “On my fumble recovery, the ball was stripped and on my teammate’s shoulder pad and I took it and ran. On my pass breakup, I read the receiver and the ball hit me on the head.”