Schaffer, Westhampton Beach Football Redeem Themselves With County Semifinal Victory at Hills West

Brody Schaffer had a game he would have rather forgotten about on October 14, when the Westhampton Beach football team hosted Half Hollow Hills West. The sophomore fumbled the ball a handful of times and it helped the visiting Colts hand the Hurricanes their first loss of the season, 45-33.

This past Saturday, November 12, however, Schaffer, and his Hurricane teammates for that matter, were going to have an opportunity to redeem themselves when it counted most in the Suffolk County Division III semifinals.

Consider themselves redeemed.

Behind a huge game from Schaffer — who scored touchdowns on both offense and defense, kicked a pair of field goals, successfully made the majority of his extra points and routinely booted touchback after touchback on kickoffs — the Hurricanes defeated host Hills West, 26-21, on Robert A. Collotta Memorial Field on Saturday to find themselves back in the county championship, having reached it in the pandemic-shortened season in April of last year.

The ’Canes will face Sayville for the county championship this Thursday, November 17, at Stony Brook University at 7 p.m.

“Not too happy with what happened last game,” Schaffer said, in reference to the first Hills West game, “but I really picked it up and did everything I needed to do to get us the win. And now we’re going to Stony Brook. It feels great.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s ecstatic,” senior co-captain Noah Hebberd said of the win. “To do it my senior year, with all my best friends at my side, it’s awesome. I’m crying tears of joy right now.”

The game began with both teams trading barbs throughout the first half on Saturday. Schaffer’s first touchdown of the day, a run from six yards out with 8:10 remaining in the half, gave the ’Canes a 13-7 lead, but on the ensuing drive, on 3rd and 8, Hills West quarterback Joseph Filardi found one of his most potent offensive weapons in Jalyn Jacques over the middle of the field and he was able to take it 45 yards for the touchdown with 5:30 remaining. After Ben Stummer’s extra point, the Colts had their first lead of the game, 14-13, but Schaffer and the ’Canes would have the final say of the half. On 4th and 5 with 44 seconds remaining, Schaffer nailed a 29-yard field goal to give Westhampton Beach a 16-14 lead at halftime.

The only scoring play of the third quarter was a 43-yard field goal by Schaffer that extended the lead for Westhampton Beach to 19-14 heading into the fourth quarter. With Hills West driving down the field midway through the final quarter, searching for a go-ahead touchdown, Schaffer once again came up big, picking off of Filardi’s pass and taking it 65 yards for a touchdown, and after his successful extra point, Westhampton Beach held a commanding 26-14 lead.

“It was unbelievable,” he said of the interception. “I read it well. Saw the ball coming — boom — to the crib.”

Westhampton Beach head coach Bryan Schaumloffel said that Saturday’s game was the first time Schaffer started on defense all year, and the first time he really played a whole game on defense. He also found it interesting that his assistant coach and offensive coordinator, Mark Johnson, had a dream before Saturday’s game that someone was going to have a pick-six to seal the game.

“I knew that he was going to have a big game because he’s so athletic, he’s so dynamic and does a lot of great things,” Schaumloffel said. “He’s played a little bit of defense, but this is the first time he started and played the whole game on defense, and that pick-six was huge.”

It didn’t necessarily seal the game, though, as Hills West managed to score another touchdown when Filardi rolled left and ran the ball in making it a five-point game after the extra point with 3:05 remaining in the game. Westhampton Beach was able to run the clock down with 16.3 seconds remaining before giving the ball over to the Colts, who tried a few backward passes in the waning seconds before an incompletion ended the game.

“Our game plan going in was bend but not break, and I think we kind of did that,” Schaumloffel said. “He’s a real dynamic kid, Filardi, and he can make something out of nothing, as you saw all day long. I thought we did a great job of taking away his number one routes and chasing him around the field, but he’s a heck of a player. Hats off to those guys. They played hard to the end. After that pick-six, I would have liked to have finished it.”

Schaffer, when all was said and done, accounted for 20 of the 26 points scored by the ’Canes. He also caught three passes for 32 yards and rushed for 38 yards on five attempts. Junior Nolan Michalowski rushed for 95 yards on 25 carries. Kevin Smith, another junior, caught five passes for 60 yards.

Gianni Amodemo, another junior, led the defense with six tackles. Seniors Luke Kilroy, Andrew Mensch and Sal Fracapane each made five tackles, with Fracapane also adding a sack. Senior T.J. Hill made three tackles and also had a sack.

Schaumloffel gave a lot of credit to his coaching staff and players for exceeding expectations this season. They had come into the season with what was a largely inexperienced group, at least on the varsity level, but they continued to improve throughout the season.

“It hasn’t been easy, still making a ton of mistakes being so young, but what a great win for the program, for the community and for these kids,” he said.

“I’m just so proud of these guys,” Hebberd added. “I’d say most of our guys had never played a varsity snap before. Now we’re making the county championship. We’re playing against guys who have been playing varsity three years. It’s been amazing. Love the work that they’ve put in.”

Schaffer said that the veteran players the team does have certainly helped the younger players, like himself, along the way.

“As Noah said, we didn’t know what was going to happen this year. We had a really new squad, all JV, a couple seniors and we just did it, and now we’re here and it feels great,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. I love this team. It’s insane.”

Westhampton Beach will now have the tough task of playing what might arguably be the toughest team in Suffolk County this season in a Sayville team that outscored its opponents by an average of more than 32 points per game, including its 49-0 county semifinal victory over Harborfields last week. The ‘Canes, who lost, 35-6, in Sayville week seven, will also have a shorter week to prepare for the Golden Flashes, as the county championship is on a Thursday.

But Schaumloffel and his players aren’t backing down from the challenge one bit.

“We’re going to get after it. We’re going to practice really hard for three days, and we’re going to give them our best shot,” Schaumloffel said. “We’re excited to be there and looking forward to it. It’s just a great opportunity for our kids.

“I feel like, if anyone, we’re the best team in the division to have a chance against Sayville … we just have to bring our ‘A’ game,” Hebberd said. “Today was a great game. But if we can have another great week of practice coming up — shorter week, but if we bring our ‘A’ game, we can beat them.”