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Sports

Cestaro, Defense Help Lions Crush Connetquot, 36-0

West Islip cruises to its second win of the season on Saturday afternoon.

Whoever made the decision to rank the newly-added West Islip Lions No. 10 in Suffolk County’s Division I preseason football rankings, might want to rethink their decision—or at least give an apology to the other 13 teams.

West Islip (2-0) kept that chip on its shoulder Saturday afternoon, thrashing the Connetquot Thunderbirds 36-0, at West Islip High School.

“We’re the 10-seed, they’re the sixth, right?” asked Lions' running back Mike Cestaro, who set the tone for the Lions from the get-go.

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Cestaro rushed for 60 yards on West Islip’s opening drive, which quarterback Anthony Santo capped off with a four-yard touchdown run.

“He made it a lot easier for me,” said Santo of Cestaro’s rushing attack. “The line played great so it was really easy for him to run.”

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Cestaro sure made it look easy, as he followed up his opening drive with another big series to finish out the first quarter.

After Santo hooked up with receiver Nick Aponte for a 10-yard gain on third-and-one, Cestaro took a lateral and broke through the right side for a 20-yard touchdown, putting the Lions up 15-0 with under a minute to go in the quarter.

“The line pushed everyone back so far I just got through the holes easily,” Cestaro said.

Cestaro grabbed 108 of his 121 rushing yards in the first half, which allowed Santo to take advantage of the Thunderbirds’ defense biting on Cestaro’s bait later on.

With one minute remaining in the second quarter, Santo faked a handoff to Cestaro for the second time of the series (the first was a 28-yard run by Santo on third-and-long) and found Aponte in the end zone for a 14-yard TD.

“We’ve got kids that have good vision and a quarterback that’s making the right decisions with our options game,” said Lions head coach Steve Mileti. “Combine good blocking with good reads and we’re just doing a great job.”

The offense wasn’t the only sect of the Lions doing a great job, as their defense also provided a heavy punch.

As good as Cestaro and company were moving the chains for the Lions offense, their defense was providing just as good an effort on the other side of the ball.

Led by two-year starter Mike Aniboli, the Lions only allowed the Thunderbirds to accumulate 42 yards of total offense through the first half.

Connetquot quarterback Brian McKean didn’t complete a pass until the third quarter, as he was constantly under storm by the Lions relentless pass-rush.

“It’s all about the D-Line, they picked up their blocks and the linebackers got over top,” said Aniboli, who finished the game with a six tackles and a sack. “It’s all about bending not breaking; you can give up a couple yards, as long as you don’t give up the big play.”

The only dent in the Lions’ armor came midway through the third quarter, when McKean converted two, third-and-longs, breaking into the West Islip red zone for the first time all afternoon.

McKean, who went 3-for-13, with 36 yards passing, didn’t have much of a chance to put his team on the board, however. Aniboli thwarted the Thunderbirds best offensive chance, sacking McKean on third down at the 14-yard line, which was followed by a Connetquot turnover-on-downs.

The Lions will have their toughest opponent of the young season thus far next week. They'll travel to Sachem North (2-0) next Friday for the first time in 25 years, with plans on spoiling the Flaming Arrows’ homecoming.

The last time these two teams met, it was the 1986 Suffolk County Championship, which Sachem won, 14-0—just another chip for the Lions to add to their shoulders.

 

Notes:

Anthony Santo went 4-for-7 with 2 TDs (1 rushing, 1 passing).

Dan Johnson rushed for an 11-yard TD.

Matt Brady rushed for an 8-yard TD.

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