Garden City Thunder Halaby 11's Boss Bellmore Braves

Danny Simmons breaks a tackle on his way to the end zone

What a way to welcome in the first day of autumn. The Yankees win, the Mets win, the Jets win, the Giants win, the Boss' birthday (no, not Steinbrenner), and our Thunder 11's dominate yet another team on the road. In fact, the only thing the team lost was the coin toss.

Once again the "Born to Run - Thunder Road" offense proved to be tougher than the rest and featured 14 (that's right folks - 14) different running backs and all of them were effective. The O line anchored by Jack Reina and shored up by Mike Cassano, Danny Miller, Danny Dolan, Zach Stamoulis, Brian Irwin, Scott Irwin, Brett Stewart and Conor Riedel and complemented by Danny Simmons, Timmy Halaby and Jack Connors coming out of the backfield marched downfield at will. Danny Simmons opened up the scoring with a 54 yard sprint to the end zone on a counter play. Thunder struck when Jack Connors blasted down Highway 29 like a runaway freighter and didn't stop until he pulled into the truck stop 50 yards away. Once again, the "Hook & Ladder" with Greene to Halaby to Stewart was successful for a 58 yard TD. Matt Greene at QB and Timmy Barbaro at Fullback combined for the extra point on a dive play. Richie Mattone closed out the scoring with a QB keeper from 6 yards out and David Gage converted the extra point with another QB keeper. Bellmore's defense was completely off balance with runners coming at them from every direction and in various styles: Timmy Halaby rapier quick, Danny Miller punishing runs, Danny Dolan refusing to go down on a big kickoff return, Tommy Reina sweeping for yards, Jack Reina up the middle, Anthony Kritis sweeping, Timmy Barbaro up the middle, Brian Irwin on a sweep, Albert Soussis up the middle, David Gage blasting for 12, Richie Mattone sprinting for a big gain, Matt Greene with several big gains out of the QB position and three conversions for extra points. It all proved to be to much for an overwhelmed Bellmore defense.

Tommy Reina takes the pitch right for a big gain

The "No Surrender" defense wrote their own script with every player on the roster getting in on the action. Danny Dolan and Timmy Barbaro took turns harassing the quarterback, Brett Stewart, Danny Miller, Jack Connors and Kyle Wein held down the defensive end positions and compressed the field. Kyle Wein blew up one play in the Bellmore backfield. Mike Cassano showed why teams run away from his side of the field by dominating the line of scrimmage. Zach Stamoulis made tackles for losses and was constantly in the Bellmore backfield. David Gage completely neutralized every player Bellmore threw at him. Albert Soussis was in on tackles. Richie Mattone made sure no one got across the border with several fine tackles and pass defenses. The linebackers, Danny Simmons, Tommy Reina, Jack Reina, Conor Riedel, Anthony Kritis, Matt Greene, Timmy Halaby, Brian Irwin and Scott Irwin seemed to spend most of the afternoon on the Bellmore side of the ball.

The center of the Thunder "O" Jack Reina

When the final gun sounded, the Scoreboard read :

"Thunder 28 - Bellmore Braves 0"

This team continues to make strides. But, with 5 more games left in the regular season, the team and coaches know that they must continue to play hard. GO THUNDER!

Connor Riedell, Timmy Barbaro, Albert Soussis & Kyle Wein with another tackle

You can't outrun Timmy Halaby, Danny Dolan & Matt Greene