A Turnover and Letizia’s Running Carry TZ Past the Quakers
For the first six games of the year, a trend of turnovers haunted Horace Greeley on its way to six straight losses. On Saturday, in front of a big Homecoming crowd in the last game of the regular season, it was turnovers again that dashed the Quakers’ hopes of picking up their first win of the season.
“We’ve turned the ball over, I can’t even tell you how many different ways we’ve done it, and it’s a shame, too,” Greeley coach Tim Sullivan said soon after his team had been defeated by Tappan Zee 27-6. “I think in that game, without the turnovers, in my mind we would have won the game in the first half.”
A scrappy Greeley defense could only do so much on its muddy home field as Tappan Zee star Joe Letizia piled up the yards and the Dutchmen overcame an early 6-0 deficit to send the Quakers to their seventh loss in a row and leave Sullivan, the first-year head coach, still searching for his first victory.
While the first two turnovers prevented the Greeley offense from sustaining quality drives, they didn’t demoralize the Quakers until early in the fourth quarter. That’s when quarterback Brett Mester had the ball knocked away in his own end zone and the Dutchmen recovered it for the touchdown that provided some much-needed breathing room.
The big defensive play with 9:30 left on the clock increased Tappan Zee’s lead to 14-6 and from there Letizia took over. The senior centerpiece of Tappan Zee’s offense finished the day with 236 yards on the ground, the bulk of them coming in the fourth quarter.
With a dirty jersey, an indication of his workload, Letizia cruised in for his second touchdown of the game to cap off an effective six-play drive to stretch the Tappan Zee lead to 20-6. A few minutes later, Letizia displayed his breakaway speed with a 39-yard sprint to the end zone for another six points that gave the Dutchmen a 21-point advantage with a minute remaining.
“I feel like we can be up there with any team,” said Letizia afterwards. “So it’s really nothing new that we’re scoring touchdowns like this.”
In the first half, Greeley managed to contain, if not completely shut down Tappan Zee’s potent offense. And offensively, the Quakers also made strides, jumping out to a quick 6-0 lead as a result of a 13-play, 75-yard drive that was dominated by running back Derek Freyburg. Mester finished off the drive with a gorgeous pass that wide receiver Brian Hamerschlag held onto as he was getting bumped in the back of the end zone early in the first quarter.
Tappan Zee quickly struck back with Letizia’s first touchdown of the game, but for most of the first half Greeley held the Dutchmen in check.
“We spent a lot of time on (Letizia) watching film and in practice,” Freyburg said. “The big focus was on him.”
And with it being Homecoming weekend for Greeley, there was a certain electricity on the home team’s sideline and in the stands, which helped in attacking a complacent Dutchmen team in the opening half.
Tappan Zee may have started out lackadaisically, but the Quakers’ Sullivan has had no reason to question his own team’s effort, in spite of the record. A winless season doesn’t mean the Quakers haven’t played with a purpose. While the new coach regrets what his players are currently going through, there’s also plenty of pride there. Even after each loss, Sullivan says he still goes to practice each Monday and has fun with the group he’s coached
Sullivan said he didn’t want to see them win for him. From a state title while he was a quarterback at Greeley and now with a family that includes three kids, Sullivan has everything he could ask for. With two non-playoff games left to the year, he wants one marked in the win column for his players.
“You learn a lot more from losing than you do winning,” he said. “This is a big character builder. I sure wish they could have a win in their pocket.”
