Huntington football opened two-a-days in August as the No. 12 seed in a 14-team division, far from the spotlight. The Blue Devils closed it Saturday going toe-to-toe with the defending Long Island Class III champs.
Huntington lost to 10-0 Sayville, 41-14, in a Suffolk Division III semifinal, ending the Blue Devils’ improbable run. Along the way Coach Steve Muller’s cast grew into something more than then even he could have hoped.
“I was proud of them,” the veteran Muller said. “We were the 12th seed coming into the season. As a group we overachieved. They grew as the season went on. We were Big Four champions.”
Junior quarterback Ben Kocis put the Blue Devils on the board with a 2-yard run early in the second quarter. Patrick Reilly’s kick forged a tie at 7.
Then Sayville running back John Haggart, who finished with 116 yards, kicked into gear. He scored two of his three touchdowns before halftime to put the Golden Flashes ahead 20-7.
“They have one of the top running backs in Long Island,” Muller said of Haggart. “He’s 6-1, 210 pounds and one of the fastest players on the field. You had to gang tackle him.”
Kocis added a 52-yard touchdown to Christian Jamison in the fourth quarter, but the game was out of reach.
The Blue Devils lost to Islip in the quarterfinals a year ago.
This season Huntington played an extra round. One week after beating rival Kings Park in the quarterfinals, Huntington finishes 7-3.
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