Under a full moon, with a packed stadium, against a top ranked opponent, Curtis Jenkins led the Farmingdale Dalers to a 31-13 victory over the Oceanside Sailors. Jenkins scored on a 93-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter and also on a 13-yard reception. The senior ran for a total of 139 yards on the day.
“That’s who he is,” said Head Coach Buddy Krumenacker. “He can break the game open, and he obviously did tonight,” in regards to Jenkins. The performance moved the Dalers to 2-0 on the season and Oceanside drops to 1-1.
Farmingdale got on the board first in the game with a 60-yard touchdown completion from QB Vinny Quinn to Tom Kennedy to give the Dalers a 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing drive, the Sailors answered right back with a six play scoring drive that was capped by a 48-yard touchdown completion to Gilly Ruiz, who was the most dynamic offensive player for Oceanside on the day.
The teams exchanged turnovers on their next drives, which brought the end of the first quarter to the score of 7-7.
At that point, the Dalers defense became impenetrable, led by senior Matt D’Antonio who made it very difficult for Oceanside to run the ball. They continued to try, and even opted for several direct snaps to running back Tariek Harris.
The Dalers benefitted from a defensive penalty on Oceanside for 12 men on the field, which took them across midfield. After a 21-yard reception to Kennedy, Jenkins caught a pass and took it to the end zone to give the Dalers the lead for good.
Oceanside briefly made it interesting, as they thwarted the Dalers’ next drive with a strip sack and recovery by Joe Denaro to put themselves back in position to score. They were unable to convert on third down and punted it away to the 7-yard line.
On the next play, deep in their own territory, Jenkins took the handoff and blew past the defense and scampered all the way for the 93-yard touchdown. It made the score 21-7 and, with the way the defense was playing, put the game away.
At the start of the second half, Sailors’ QB Vinny Guarino dropped back on third down and fired down field, but was intercepted by Dallas Creamer. The Dalers capitalized with a 41-yard field goal to make it 24-7.
The last chance for the Sailors came at the end of the third quarter after they recovered a fumble and had a chance to cut into the lead. That drive was thwarted by an interception that was returned for a 31-yard touchdown by Kennedy.
Krumenacker took out his starters for the fourth quarter to run down the clock, and that was it. The victory was a positive sign for the Dalers who showed that they can dominate an elite team like Oceanside that was coming off a 37-0 shutout victory in Week 1.
“I told the guys coming in, ‘this is a real good team’. They looked great a week ago,” said Krumenacker. “But we got an old team, and we got size to matchup.”
