Football: With 3 TDs by Ireland, Porters score 51 points, jump to 2-0
The Greenport/Southold/Mattituck high school football team is no stranger to blowouts. The Porters have been involved in their fair share of them over the years.
What made this one different, compared to some other one-sided games they have been involved in over recent years, is that this time they were the ones on the favorable end of the final score.
The Porters’ offense came to life in a big way Friday night. They scored the game’s first 22 points, stretched their lead to 44-6, and looked in full control for most of their Suffolk County Division IV game against Southampton/Ross.
Tristin Ireland accounted for 22 points himself as the Porters raised their record to 2-0 thanks to a 51-12 pasting of the Mariners. The senior running back scored three touchdowns (two on runs and one on a reception) in addition to running in a pair of 2-point conversions at Southampton High School’s Richard H. Smith Field.
Another strong showing by the Porters’ quarterback, Dylan Marlborough, helped. The senior passed for two touchdowns, including a 52-yarder to Jake Skrezec, and had a touchdown run himself. Marlborough went 9 of 16 passing for 139 yards, finding six receivers in the process. He also had 76 rushing yards, to boot, before being relieved by Sean Sepenoski in the fourth quarter.
Keegan Syron also ran for a Porters touchdown.
Not only did the Porters’ offense run smoothly, but all sorts of plays went their way, the biggest being a Southampton fumble that saw Dominick Panetta collect the bouncing ball and run it back 82 yards for a score. Ireland’s conversion run after that gave the Porters a 22-0 lead with 6 minutes 37 seconds left in the second quarter.
Southampton/Ross, playing its season-opening game after a 2-6 campaign in 2014, scored both of its touchdowns on 1-yard runs by its freshman quarterback, Shawn Stelling.
The victims of the 9/11 terror attacks were not forgotten on the 14th anniversary of that day. Two fire trucks held aloft a giant American flag on a street adjacent to the field. After the Mariners entered the field by running between two lines of youth football players, a moment of silence was observed for the 9/11 victims. At halftime, firefighters, some holding flags, were applauded as they were joined by fans in a memorial lap around the track that surrounds the football field.
Prior to the game, it appeared as if a swarm of flying insects that looked like termites had taken over the field. Following the opening kickoff, though, the Porters took over the game, asserting their control with strong defense and an offense that looked well-tuned.
The Porters’ defense, led by Syron’s eight tackles and one fumble recovery, held Southampton/Ross to 182 yards of offense and only three pass completions for 34 yards. The Mariners managed to convert just one of 13 third-down plays for a first down.
Ireland and Zach Holmes each had an interception for the Porters.
