Leading off today: Sayville rallied from 20 points down at the half to beat East Islip 28-27 with a touchdown in the closing seconds of Saturday's Suffolk County Class A football game.
Sayville entered the game ranked 12th and East Islip according to the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Junior Jack Cheshire shook off three interceptions earlier to throw a 17-yard TD pass to Brock Murtha with 13 seconds to go. Kicker Michael Argenziano hit the extra point for the winning point.
"We found out what we were made of today against a very good football team," Murtha said. "We picked each other up. We shook off blown assignments and turnovers and bad plays. And we never stopped coming. And in the end, we made the only play that mattered.
East Islip's Brandon Miller had hit Nick Baldino for a pair of TD passes and Derek Burrell for the third en route to a 20-0 lead. A short Murtha (201 all-purpose yards) TD run cut the deficit to 27-14 late in the third quarter, then Cheshire (16 of 34, 208 yards) connected for 13 yards and a score to Ty Kolar with 3:50 left.
More L.I. drama: Tommy Verga hit Wayne Bristel for a 56-yard touchdown with :05 left and Brian Lombardo kicked the extra point as No. 4 William Floyd edged Sachem East 21-20 in a Section 11 Class AA game.
William Floyd drove 77 yards in a possession that began with :45 on the clock and no timeouts. Verga found Bristel for a 2-yard pass to the Floyd 44, where he couldn't get out of bounds. Instead of spiking the ball, Verga (13 of 22, 187 yards and 2 TDs) threw deep and the 6-foot-3 Bristel went high over a defender to reel the ball in and then run down the left sideline.
"This was a character check for sure," Floyd coach Paul Longo said. "In Suffolk County last year, we didn't have any games that were close at all. And this year we've been doing pretty good, but because of all our injuries -- more serious ones than any team I've had -- keep piling up, these are the kind of games we're going to have."
Section 5 thrillers: The depth of talented teams in Section 5 Class A is so good that even the No. 1 seed in the playoffs will have its hands full in the quarterfinals. That cream of the crop played in two thrillers Saturday.
Clinging to a 33-32 lead with :16 to play, No. 10 Eastridge stopped running back Jahkier Moore of No. 22 Rochester Wilson on a fourth-down pitch fro the 3-yard line to improve to 5-0.
Eastridge running back Ruben Torres scored three touchdowns, including one on a 5-yard carry for the game's final points.
Meanwhile, unranked Rochester East battled University Prep, ranked 13th in Class B, and booked a 26-22 victory as Freddie Brock returned a punt 47 yards down the left sideline with :13 left.
"Honestly, I don't even know what that was," Brock said. "I didn't even know they were going to punt it, to be honest. I thought they were going to fake it, but it just happened."
Brock, a UMass commit, ran 17 times for 121 yards, made four catches for 71 more and finished with 332 all-purpose yards.
CSH dominates: Third-ranked Cold Spring Harbor scored on all six of its first half possessions and rolled past No. 8 Seaford 44-6 in a Class B contest.
CSH led 20-0 after one quarter and 44-0 at the half against a squad that had outscored its first three foes by a 117-8 margin.
Jacob Bruno rushed 20 times for 183 yards and three
