One of the Thunder family moms...under the lights Football can be a game of euphoric highs and devastating lows. Football can take a man’s heart and tear it apart. Football can make a nine year-old face the demon, and live to tell the tale. Last Saturday night, the Thunder Maroon 9s went through the NCYFL’s 9 year-old gauntlet (better known as Massapequa), and came out with their heads held high.

The defensive line had their hands full all night with a relentless Massapequa ground game. The Mustangs got two quick scores, but the Thunder defense held for the rest of the first half.

QB Kevin Mullin, and running backs Richie Mattone, Luke Zeccola, Anthony Preziosi tried to get the Thunder on the scoreboard but the Mustang defense gave little quarter. When asked after the game what the Massapequa defense was like, Desmond O’Malley said, “these guys have beards thicker than my Dads!”

A little Thunder Razzle Dazzle Offensive linemen J.P. Moran, Jack Anesner, Jack Kennelly, Ryan Guarino and Joe Creighton tired to open some running lanes but got shut down quicker than coach Sugrue at this freshman mixer.

Bash Bros. Sugrue and Moran, Mike Keating, Ryan Blair and Matt Greene made some sweet plays on defense to keep the home crowd cheering. Defensive players, Aidan Brown, Kyle Harder, Mike Holland and Alex Umland kept the Mustangs from scoring for most of the second half.

Massapequa who? Defenders Will Harrington and Anthony Zinga, were quoted after the game, when asked where do they go from here? “That’s football. Losing is part of life. We’re not gonna cry and whine. We’re football players. Thunder Football players.”

Offensive Assistant Coach Ireland when pressed about expanding the playbook against Mineola next week, said “We need to block and run, block and run, block and run. If you want razzle dazzle, go to the circus.” Wow, tough times, deserve tough solutions.

Fan(s) of the Game: All the family, friends and fans. Judged solely from the cheering - one would have thought the score was 20-0 thunder.

The season’s now in full-swing, and we hope to see you again with us next Sunday October 9, 12:30 at Mineola. It definitely takes dedication, practice and teamwork to get back to winning. But that’s exactly what these kids are all about.

Go Thunder!