It’s Ragnarok and roll time for the Nassau champion Seaford Vikings.
The Norsemen of the South Shore march on to the Lengthy Island championship on Saturday for “unfinished enterprise” towards Bayport-Blue Level, whom they fell to 42-20 within the 2023 soccer title recreation.
“It’s a full-circle second,” senior operating again Brian Falk, the college’s all-time yards document holder with over 4,350 yards, instructed The Submit. “However will we win this time? It might positive be memorable and storybook.”
In any case, the 10-1 group’s 2025 mantra has been all a few “revenge tour” and night scores from years previous, stated senior quarterback Michael Spinella.
The Convention IV bunch was reeling from a more energizing wound heading into this season — a 33-27 county semifinal heartbreak by the hands of the Plainedge Crimson Devils on a last-second Hail Mary final yr.
“We needed to get again up, and we simply needed to maintain working collectively as brothers the entire offseason, going within the weight room, hitting the sector,” Spinella stated.
Bjorn-again Vikings
The superlative work additionally introduced the boys nearer to go coach Mike McHugh, who Falk stated was “thrown into the fireplace” as a last-minute new rent that yr.
“I believe the bonding got here fast,” McHugh stated. “All of us knew what occurred final yr, and we needed to appropriate it, repair it, and we knew we might solely do this collectively.”
It was an all-hands-on-deck dedication as final yr’s seniors, for higher or worse, sparked a fireplace on the Vikings’ offensive line.
“We had been undoubtedly doubted this yr. Folks stated that we had been undersized and we weren’t sturdy,” senior heart Thomas Mirenda stated.
“It gave us some anger, and it simply helped us out all through the way in which,” added the 5-foot-10, 185-pound lineman.
As to how the road held up this yr, McHugh stated, “They’ve been enjoying unbelievably,” whereas Falk referred to as his guys within the trenches “lights-out.” Spinella added, “I owe them dinner.”
(He will probably be coughing up massive bucks at a steakhouse like Prime in Huntington if Mirenda will get his manner).
The group constructing can also be felt on protection, as junior free security Jackson Pignataro stated the seniors are making the gridiron slightly smaller for the varsity newcomers.
“They’re all the time there for me. If I mess up, they ensure that I preserve my head excessive,” he stated. “On the sector, one unhealthy play doesn’t imply something.”
Coping with occasional miscues grew to become one other essential a part of the Vikings’ success as effectively.
Plainedge nonetheless handed Seaford its solely lack of the season with a 35-0 crusher that was, fittingly, on Halloween — however that’s within the rearview now. The Vikings lastly exorcised their demons, overcoming the Crimson Devils 21-7 to win the county title final week.
“That was a redemption recreation,” stated Falk, who will play lacrosse at West Level subsequent yr. “Lastly with the ability to beat and take them down, particularly in a championship, meant a lot extra.”
To Valhalla
Now with one remaining activity at hand, it’s “Tremendous Bowl” sentiments and “good vibes” for what will probably be Seaford’s final recreation of the yr, the place they will’t maintain something again, McHugh stated.
It’s been a really “emotional” week, not just for the seniors — they gave jerseys to academics who’ve made an impression on their 4 years in highschool — but in addition for the coach.
“I’ve been mentored by some nice coaches who’ve received it, and I’ve bought numerous different coaches rooting for me and serving to me out as I am going,” McHugh stated. “It’s nearly a testomony to them that if we win this, it might not simply be my win, it’s all the fellows that helped me out all through the years.”
