East, North Play in Six-Way Scrimmage (Photos)

Both Sachem football programs took to the field for their first live game action of the season Thursday evening in a six-way scrimmage held at Sachem East.

North and East played Smithtown East, Westhampton Beach and Miller Place throughout the course of the evening. Bellmore JFK was also there, but did not face either Sachem school. The controlled scrimmage allows for the first and second teams to get action against the competition with a handful of plays on both sides of the ball.

For coaching staffs, the multi-team scrimmages serve as a way to answer many questions that arise in training camp and to get an overall feel for what they have in their team.

“I saw us come together as a team,” said Sachem North coach Dave Falco. “I saw some leadership. I was very happy with that.”

For Sachem East, head coach Mark Wojciechowski was pleased that his team grinded it out in all three scrimmage attempts.

“They didn’t back down,” he said. “It didn’t go well in the middle of the day, but we came back in the end against Miller Place. It was really good to see. I was concerned going into that third one that we’d hit the skids, but they bounced back.”

The marquee players on both rosters shined through with East’s Stephen Casli running and tackling his way to some bruising plays, most notably a 30-yard run up the middle against Smithtown East.

“He’s a beast,” Wojciechowski said. “If he does well, we do well. That’s the bottom line.”

Sachem North’s Dalton Crossan got the best of Miller Place with what looked like a 50-yard run for touchdown. There were no yardage markings painted on the back practice field at East, where North played its three scrimmages. According to Falco, the grass setting allowed for some early adversity for North, who originally prepared to play on turf.

For North, the ability to see external competition and be tested is vital at this point of the season.

“Our biggest problem right now is we can not get that competition in practice,” he said. “We need guys who are not in the mix right now, who need to step it up. The more competition the better. It’s going to help us grow.”

Fourth and Long

• Mike Marchello Rob Neubert and Billy Merone did not play for East because of injury.
• Connor Harris and Nick DiRosse did not play for North.
• Their first real single-game scrimmages take place Saturday as Sachem North travels to North Babylon and Sachem East travels to Riverhead.
• Check Sachem Patch for coverage from both scrimmages this weekend.