Team Captains Chris Calouri, Kyle Steinbach and James Buckley face off vs the ER Raiders. The Garden City Thunder 8 Maroon squad improved to 4-0 with a hard fought 26-12 victory over East Rockaway Raiders under the "Friday Night Lights" at the GC Pool last week. The Maroon 8s went to the air early and often completing two TD passes and one pass for an extra point.

Garden City started on defense and quickly stopped the Raiders with superb tackles by Matt DeSimplicis and Kyle Steinbach. Throughout the game there were tremendous tackling efforts by the Thunder defense - Patrick Leggett, Michael Liberopolous, Tommy Siler, Sean Leggett, and Jack Dignam all had multiple outstanding defensive plays.

Effective tackling by the Thunder defense allowed the offense to go to work behind a solid wall of blockers. Mark Michon, Chris Calouri, Conor Clark, Liam Widdell, Matt Flanagan and Brian Greene provided a powerful offensive line that gave the team the time to work some magic. On their first possession, Will Honan hauled in a 15 yard pass from Andrew DeSantis and waltzed into the endzone for his first ever touchdown. Kieran Paskewitz then took a quick pitch over the line for the point after.

James Buckley on the move to paydirt. On their second possession Andrew DeSantis bootlegged the pigskin around end for the 40 yard score and Cole Dutton fired a scoring strike to Matt DeSimplicis for the PAT.

The 2nd half started with the Thunder chewing up big chunks of turf. Kieran Paskewitz, Michael Liberopolous, Matt Flanagan and Matt DeSimplicis all knifed up the middle on dive plays that were sandwiched between carries left and right by Jack Dignam and Sal Ingrassia. The Thunder drive culminated in their 2nd TD pass of the game (3rd of the season) this time from Cole Dutton to Andrew DeSantis.

East Rockaway closed the gap but the Thunder weren't done as QB James Buckley tip-toed down the sideline on a long-yardage keeper to add the insurance points. With time waning ERockaway tried a desperation pass which was intercepted by the Thunder secondary.

Stephen Calouri on the carry for a first down. Following their battle on-field against the Raiders, the Thunder battled numerous pizzas at an end-of-game pizza party and emerged victorious. The Thunder 8 Maroon next host the unbeaten Elmont Cardinals in an early eye-opener at Stewart Field 9:00 this Sunday, October 19th.

Jack Dignam enroute to a big gain. Matt Flanagan scoring on a 40 yard run.