Babylon Panthers Win Suffolk County Championship

You can now call them the undefeated Suffolk County Champions.

The Babylon Panthers (11-0) added another notch on to their perfect 2012 football season, defeating the rival Mount Sinai Mustangs (9-2) to win the 2012 Suffolk County Division IV Championship and the right to move on to next weekend's Long Island Championship.

"No words can describe the way we feel right now," said quarterback Nick Santorelli after the win. "All the work we've put in since January... we came out, we played."

"It feels great," said Babylon Head Coach Rick Punzone, dripping wet after his players dumped a cooler full of Gatorade on him during the closing seconds. "I'll take one of those anytime."

Scoring, which has been rather easy for the Panthers all season long, was far and few between for most of the game between the top two teams in Suffolk's Division IV.

Babylon scored on its opening drive, capped by a nine yard run by Santorelli and another Alex Malhas extra-point kick. The Panthers held on to that opening 7-0 lead until the very last-minute of the second quarter, when the Mustangs busted through the smothering Babylon defense with a two yard run by runningback Mark Donadio, tying the game at the half at 7.

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The Panthers went right back to work after the half. Only a few plays into the opening drive, Santorelli connected with Jake Carlock for a 53-yard pass. Carlock, one of the team's leading receivers this year, danced his way around a few Mustang defenders and hit the gas to get the touchdown and give the Panthers a 14-7 lead.

Babylon took the ball over with roughly 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter and drained what was left on the game clock down to nearly two minutes left as runningback Eric Schweitzer dove into the end zone for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead. Schweitzer would come down with an interception to seal the victory.

The victory would not have been possible without a stifling defensive effort by Babylon. Defensive end Tyler Christiansen had 11 tackles and Carlock added 5 and a half to the effort, keeping Mt. Sinai to only 7 points.

"Defensively, I think this is the best we have played," said Punzone. "To shut down those kids the way we did, that was as good of a defensive effort as you could ask for."

"I think we have the best defense on Long Island," Carlock said. "We're out to uphold our reputation."

Santorelli had another big game for the Panthers – running 105 yards with a touchdown, passing for 128 with a touchdown. The quarterback gave up two interceptions, one of which ended up with the Mustangs scoring their only touchdown.

Schweitzer had 37 rushing yards on 12 carries, including the final touchdown to secure the victory. Carlock only had four receptions, but totaled 97 yards and a touchdown.

Alex Malhas improved to a perfect 41-for-41 on the season for extra-point attempts on the season.

The Suffolk Championship is Babylon's first since 2008.

Babylon will face the Nassau County Champion Roosevelt Rough Riders for the Division IV championship this Saturday at Stony Brook University.