The Student Perspective: Bringing Down The Wall

Heading into their match-up with Longwood, Sachem knew it had a tough game against a team that recently upset William Floyd and was 3-0 prior to Saturday's game at Fred Fusaro Alumni Stadium.

Maybe a 6-foot-3, 310-pound lineman in Syracuse-bound Omari Palmer was part of the issue. How on Earth would the Crossans be able to take down such an unstoppable force? Well, they just ran around it, which really meant they ran right through it.

The Lions were fed a steady diet of QB keepers and runs right up the gut for the entire first quarter. Palmer and the rest of the line clogged the holes so well that the Arrows failed to score, as the Lions held a 7-0 lead going into the second quarter.

That was when Sachem began to find the necessary tools for tearing down the Lions' defensive line, brick by brick. Those carries up the middle quickly turned into pitches and options to the outside. In an instant, Dalton Crossan was sprinting up and down the sidelines. While Sachem stuck to what it knows best, this simple, small tweak in game plan definitely proved to be highly effective for the team, as the Arrows ran their way to a 35-27 victory.

Sachem simply avoided running directly at Palmer, taking the ball outside the hash marks to get its scores. All four of Crossan's touchdowns were to the outside, despite the fact that Malik Pierre scored a touchdown right up the gut in the fourth quarter.

In the end, Palmer and the Lions line, which hadn't surrendered more than 12 points before this game, fell to the versatile ground attack of Dalton and Trent Crossan (before exiting in the third with an apparent leg injury), just like so many teams before them.

Christopher Buckley is a senior at Sachem North and a member of the sports staff at 91.9 FM WSHR, Sachem's student operated radio station.

Download the movie

Download the movie