Thunder Offense In what was billed as the quintessential match-up of two unbeaten teams little doubt was left in the stadium at the finish of last Friday Night Lights match-up between Garden City and Mineola. After winning the opening toss the Thunder offense put on a display of smash mouth football. An unending drive punctuated by pulverizing runs by Sean Tariche and fancy footwork from Colin Hart and Justin Coppola culminated with a touchdown scamper by Justin Coppola. The drive was accented by stellar line performance from Bobby Lehan, Liam Griffith, Matthew McGovern, Jack Ryan, Angelo Demiris, Trevor Yeboah-Kodie, Aidan O’Connor, Aidan McDonagh, Brian Boland, and Patrick Ilardi.

Mineola than took over on offense. From the outset the two man show of Mineola was very impressive in moving the ball. The drive culminated with a touchdown and extra point making the score 7-6 in favor of Mineola. Little did they know that getting in the end zone again would prove to be an impossible task. The Thunder took over on offense and once again behind the best offensive line in the league, ground out another drive resulting in a Justin Coppola score to make the halftime score 12-7 in favor of the Thunder.

Thunder Defense After some halftime adjustments the Thunder defense showed why they are the most difficult team to score on in the league. The secondary of Jack Cobb, Jack Muldoon, Harry Murphy, Justin Hessler, and Brendan McEvoy were able to seal the outside not allowing Mineola to run around the end. Two successive drives ended in turnovers due to a hard hitting defensive front of crashing ends Sean Tariche and Aidan O’Connor. The interior line play of Nate Fridrich, Christian Genussa, James Affronti, Donald Byrne, Jack Ryan, Liam Griffith, Matthew McGovern, Bobby Lehan, Lucas Feingold, and Dylan McDonald was simply awesome! The Thunder offense took over again with another sustained drive resulting in a Colin Hart touchdown run to extend the lead to 19-7. Another turnover gave the Thunder offense the ball towards the end of the game. At the two yard line Jack Muldoon graciously took a knee to end the game giving the Thunder the only undefeated record in their league.

The win assured the Thunder the number one seed in the play-offs. Next up is Baldwin ‘A’ on Sunday morning. Come out and support all your Thunder teams!