The pundits say that baseball is a game of inches. Well, the age-old adage proved applicable to Saturday night’s football game under the moon of Inwood Field when the Thunder White took on their counterparts in the strong, fast and tough Buccaneers. The final outcome turned on two key plays. The first came early when Inwood, on fourth and goal from the one-yard line, managed to squeeze into the end zone by inches. The second came late when Garden City, on fourth and two from inside the Inwood ten-yard line, was stopped by inches.

The game in between saw both offenses jab, with several haymakers thrown in. Garden City’s offense featured both Thunder, in the form of Jack Conners’ rambling runs through the middle of he plains for two big touchdowns covering 15 and 17 yards, and lightning, with the electric bolts of Timmy Halaby, Joey Burdi and Cullen Minion flashing across the field, along with two extra point conversions by Timmy Halaby.

The pre-game coin toss was called by co-captains Connor Riedel, David Gage, Anthony Kritis and Jack Reina. Inwood started on offense and, with a long, sustained drive, managed to eat up the clock for the entire first quarter.

The interior defense of Jack Reina, Thomas Reina, Thomas Leggett, Connor Riedel, Albert Soussis, David Gage, Anthony Velez, Conor Byrnes and Michael Cassano effectively sealed off the middle throughout the contest. Mike Cassano came up huge in the second half with a Klecko-like bull rush to sack the quarterback. The defense ends Jack Connors and Timmy Halaby gave tremendous effort the entire game. Several Inwood ball carriers who had broken free and seemed to be heading for the end zone were stopped when Joey Burdi ran them down. The linebacking crew of Anthony Kritis, Danny Miller, Danny Dolan and Kieran Byrnes continued their fine play with key tackles by Anthony Kritis and Kieran Byrnes, a tackle for a big loss by Danny Miller and the constant harassment of the quarterback and running backs by Danny Dolan, who seemed to be in the Inwood backfield on every play.

The offensive line with Liam Byrnes at the center position assisted by Rob Wotczak, Conor Byrnes, Danny Miller, Kieran Byrnes, Brian Tully and Danny Dolan, worked extremely hard against a powerful and determined Inwood offense. Final Score: Garden City 14 - Inwood 14.

The team is preparing hard for their upcoming game at home this Sunday against Mineola. The boys have made tremendous progress and look forward to continued success.

go thunder!