Sports
Panthers Pounce on East Hampton, Advance in Playoffs
The Babylon Panthers showed no field rust after nearly two weeks away from the field.
The Babylon Panthers may have had some of the roughest two weeks away from the football field and school with Hurricane Sandy and its effects in the village, but the second the team hit the field – it was back to business as usual.
The #1-ranked Panthers took it to the East Hampton Bonackers, defeating the #8-ranked by a final score of 55-14. Babylon improves its perfect season to 9-0 and moves on to face #5-ranked McGann-Mercy in the next round of the the Suffolk County Division IV playoffs.
The Panthers got off on the right foot with the opening drive, losing the coin toss and being the receiving team to start the game. On the first down, quarterback Nick Santorelli chucked a 70-yard pass down the field to wide receiver Jake Carlock for the first points of the day and a 8-0 Babylon lead.
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On defense, the Panthers never gave East Hampton a shot – Eric Schweitzer intercepted passes on two-straight Bonacker offensive drives for touchdowns and staked the Panthers to an early 29-0 lead in the first quarter.
Schweitzer had a big game outside of his defense, also rushing 41 yards only on two attempts for a touchdown.
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"He's been big for us all year," said Coach Rick Punzone. "He always finds us a way to score for us."
Babylon's trademark starting defense, which had held opponents scoreless through the last two games of the regular season, allowed a single 34-yard pass by the Bonackers that scored a touchdown. Outside of that, it was all Panthers with the starters in during the first half.
Babylon has only allowed an average of 8.4 points per game to opponents all year and has three shutouts under its belt.
Kicker Alex Malhas continued his excellent season, converting 5 more extra-point goals to extend his record consecutive streak.
The Panthers will face the #5-ranked McGann-Mercy High School at Babylon next weekend.
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