Sweep Left This past Sunday the O’Connor Thunder 8s took on their cross town rivals from Hempstead. Stewart Field was the venue for the 9:00am kick-off. This game was a classic look a head trap for the Thunder 8s as a Saturday night Farmingdale game was next on the schedule. Captains Brian Boland, Liam Griffith, and Angelo Demiris were able to win the coin toss and secure the ball for the Thunder 8s.

In the first series Colin “Don’t Break My” Hart started the scoring early scampering around the end to make the score 7-0. The Thunder Offense was off to a fast start. It was now time for the Thunder defense to stake their claim! The Hempstead offense began moving the ball consistently down the filed and got the ball inside the Thunder ten yard line. One inside the ten the defense began to clamp down. Bone crushing tackles by Brendan “Bears” McEvoy and Jack “And the Beanstalk” Cobb forced Hempstead to give the ball back to the GC Thunder.

Here Comes the Trevor Train Starting on the 20 the Thunder offense began a bruising series of up the middle runs highlighted by strong gains from Sean “I Run Like Alan Ameche” Tariche. Sean Tariche punctuated the drive by scoring giving the Thunder a 13-0 lead. After a sustained drive resulting in a touchdown by Hempstead the halftime score remained close favoring the Thunder 13-7.

In the second half the defensive line began to assert itself. Run stopping tackles by Liam “This is Not Andy’s Mayberry” Griffith, Lucas “Not Rheingold” Feingold, James “Get Behind Me Not “ Affronti Me, Donald “I Give Rug” Byrne, Christian “ I Have No Use For Ya” Genussa, and Dirty Harry “Make My Day” Murphy forced Hempstead into a three and out. The Thunder offense took over and began to gobble up yardage on the ground. Led by the beefy offensive line of Angelo “Bertoli” Demiris, Brian “The Pin Striker” Boland, Jack “The Sum of All Fears” Ryan, Aidan “ I’ll Stop Blocking When I Am” McDonagh Ya , and Patrick “Bacardi” Ilardi culminated in an end around touchdown run by Trevor “Nice to Know Ya” Yeboah-Kodie. Hempstead got the ball back and attempted to trade scores with the Thunder. After hard hits from Justin “I’ll Mess With Ya” Hessler, Matt “Splat” McGovern, Nate “Lock the Gate” Fridrich, Dylan “I’m Not the Villain” McDonald, and Bobby Hittin’ is My Hobby” Lehan the Hempstead drive ended when Aidan “You’re a Goner” O’Connor recovered a fumble.

Offense Ready to Roll The scoring culminated when Jack “I Can QB All Afternoon” Muldoon orchestrated another surgical drive ending with Justin “Bustin” Coppola scoring to make the final score 25-13 in favor of the Thunder 8s.

The Thunder 8s travel to Farmingdale this Saturday night for an under the covers 7:45pm kick-off. Come out and support all of your Garden City Thunder teams. Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twibes.com/group/GCThunder8sOConnor