Oyster Bay Football Falls to Bulldogs

Brian Eletti looked unstoppable in the zone read offense.

The Island Trees senior quarterback ran for 133 yards and three touchdowns on eight carries to power the Bulldogs to a 42-0 win over host Oyster Bay Saturday before a crowd of 400. 

“He’s an athletic quarterback with good speed, good moves,” Island Trees Coach Mike Bonsignore said. “This week in practice we really worked on the read. ‘Don’t be afraid to take it.’ It’s on him. He makes this offense go.” 

Eletti’s signature moment came early in the third. The left tackle blew the defensive end out of the picture and Eletti broke free along the sideline. He ran into traffic 50 yards downfield, but plowed through a potential tackle and weaved through the secondary for an electrifying 86-yard touchdown run to put the Bulldogs up 28-0.

“It’s only one loss,” Oyster Bay Coach Joe Knoll said. “It’s not the season. The only thing we lost is an undefeated season. We have to regroup and get ready to play our next game.”

Oyster Bay celebrates homecoming against Malverne next Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Bulldogs' victory was a strong statement one week after Island Trees (1-1) got shut out 24-0 by Nassau Conference IV power Seaford.

The 3-5 defense, playing to stop the run, did just that. Oyster Bay (1-1) amassed more than 200 rushing yards in a 17-7 win over Cold Spring Harbor. Island Trees, with its big linemen, proved to be an immovable object.

“The motivation was to hold them to 30 yards on offense,” said Island Trees senior linebacker Joe Piscopio, who was named player of the game for his two-way play. “In the running game we got that done. Our defense is built around guys getting to the ball quickly and making plays.”

The first string met that objective. The Bulldogs forced four turnovers and held Oyster Bay to 88 yards total offense. But 65 of those yards came on Oyster Bay’s final drive of the game, which ended when the clock ran out at the Island Trees 4-yard-line. 

“Defensively, we wanted shut them down,” Bonsignore said. “We did that. They had one first down in the first half. Defense really stepped it up.” 

Island Trees also caught a break early. A bad snap sailed over the Oyster Bay punter’s head on fourth down and was recovered at the Baymen 1-yard-line. John Pascalli scored on the next play, a dive that gave Island Tress a quick 7-0 edge with 2:35 left in the first quarter.    

A short Oyster Bay punt into the wind deep in their own territory set up the Bulldogs again in the second. Island Trees got the ball at the Baymen 14 and scored two plays later on an Eletti keeper. 

“They’ll all big,” Knoll said of Island Trees' linemen. “We don’t have one guy who matches those seven guys size-wise.”

Nassau Conference IV Football

Teams……………1…..2…..3…..4 – F

Island Trees..…7…14…21…..0 – 42

Oyster Bay……..0…..0…..0…..0 – 0

IT – Pascalli 1 run (Hahn kick)

IT – Eletti 6 run (Hahn kick)

IT – Pascalli 10 run (Hahn kick)

IT – Eletti 86 run (Hahn kick)

IT – Eletti 6 run (Hahn kick)

IT – O’Connell 71 run (Hahn kick)

Editor's Note: Look for game action photos on Monday.