Sachem assistant coach Alex Grimm often refers to his special teams units as “special forces” and the morning of the championship game he posted a photo on Instagram of a sentence on the top of his game plan that read, “Special Forces are the road on which CHAMPIONSHIPS are built … are you going to be the STEAMROLLER or the PAVEMENT?”
By now you know the answer. Sachem made a special teams statement and proved to be the steamroller with its punt block call that will go down in program history as one of the greatest moments you’ll see in a championship game.
Lined up deep in their its own territory late in the game, Farmingdale was forced to punt, and Sachem was ready. Malik Pierre came storming through the line, as did his teammates, and he took the ball on his forearms, successfully blocking the punt and causing a safety, which in turn gave Sachem two points and the momentum it needed to capture the program’s first Long Island championship 5:27 later.
“That was the charge we needed,” said Sachem junior lineman Anthony DiMatteo. “I felt that energy and we knew we could take it right there.”
The play is called “hundreds” and has only been called one other time in the last four years, yet practiced almost every week for just as long. Sachem coach Dave Falco said he dreamt of a punt block the night before the championship game, envisioning the exact spot on the field where it took place. Seriously.
“Coach Falco really emphasizes our special teams,” said Sachem senior Trent Crossan. “Coach always said we’re going to get a block on hundreds this season and it actually happened. We ran it maybe two times in the four years I’ve been here and both times we got blocks.”
Falco always makes a point to talk about “great special teams” during his pre-game speeches. He often says it twice to emphasize the importance of kicks, punts, returns and every other tiny aspect of “special forces” that could turn out to make or break a season.
“We’ve used hundreds over the years, but this year we hadn’t,” said Falco. “We practiced it every Friday, we practiced it hard. I had a vibe and knew I wanted to call it in that area of the field. We saw some things on film we thought we could take advantage of.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro