On Saturday, October 9, 2004, the Garden City JV team faced the Calhoun Colts. GC was coming off a big win versus Elmont, and was looking for their 4 th in a row. The team spent a hard week preparing for the game, and went in confident.

GC started off with the ball, but the drive was only a few plays old when an offensive turnover gave Calhoun the ball at about their own 45 yard line. After a penalty, Calhoun had good field position, but GC’s defense stood tall. On a third down play, Francis McDonough came on a blitz off the corner to get the quarterback, forcing a fourth and forever play. The Calhoun offense tried to catch the defense off guard with a short screen, but nose-tackle Blaise Ancona knocked the pass down, giving the ball back to Garden City.

The offense that came back on the field seemed to be a completely different one than the one that was stopped before. This time the offense had a fire behind them. Running back Tim McLaughlin ran the ball for about 60 yards on the first play to get the first score of the day. The kick was no good, and GC was up 6-0 with 6 minutes left in the first quarter. When Calhoun got the ball, GC’s enthusiasm carried over on defense, and they forced a punt. The kick was returned by sophomore Tim Harder to about the 40 yard line.

When QB Dean Gibbons was forced out of the pocket, he kept cool and threw a long pass to Adam Clay for a first down. That play set up an inside trap that Dan Savage ran for 25 yards and the team’s second score of the day. After the two point conversion run by Brendan Carroll, the score was 14-0 Garden City with 1:45 left in the first quarter. GC’s defense forced another punt and the “O” took over.

When the offense came back out, they showed how they can not only dominate the running game, but they can also throw the ball effectively. On the first play, Gibbons hit Ryan Sweeney for a big gain. Then the next play, he connected with Francis McDonough, who brought the ball down to the 2 yard line. After that, GC’s leading scorer, Will Manning, ran the ball in to give them a 21 point cushion. There was about 9 minutes left in the first half.

The Colt’s offense tried to run a series of tricky, misleading plays, but to no avail. On a fourth down, Dan Savage knocked down a throw by Calhoun’s QB, once again giving the ball back to GC with good field position. Garden City’s offense went back to the passing game, and QB Gibbons his McDonough out deep in the middle of the field. When the drive seemed to have been stopped, Gibbons scrambled for the first down to give it new life. On the next play, Dan Savage ran the ball in up the middle for his second touchdown on the day. The kick was good and GC led by 28 with 4 minutes to go in the second quarter. Calhoun regained the ball, but quickly gave it back, after being stopped on fourth down. After long runs by Ryan Lynch and Ryan Dowling, the half ended and GC was up 28-0.

Calhoun started the next half with the ball, but their offense was having problems. They had to relinquish the ball after being forced to punt. The running game had made its reappearance by now, as Ryan Lynch and Kevin Rose picked up good yardage on the ground. On a QB run left, Brendan Carroll took it to the end zone and scored the games fifth touchdown. The kick was good, and made the score 35-0 with 8 minutes in the third.

The Calhoun offense staged an impressive counterattack, driving the ball downfield, but they had to fight for every yard. GC’s second defense made it very close, and nearly held the Calhoun drive, but none the less their QB scored on a quarterback plunge play on the half yard line. With the kick, the score was 35-7 Garden City, with a little over 3 minutes left in the 4 th quarter.

When GC regained the ball, they successfully ran down the clock until the game ended. Garden City has won its fourth game in a row, and hopes to keep the streak alive next Saturday, October 16, versus Lawrence High School. It is an away game that starts at 9:30. Let’s hope the Trojans can defeat their opponent, which is supposed to be one of the hardest on the schedule.