Devin Demetres waited 10 months for the 48 minutes he spent out on the gridiron, and he made every one of them count.
The Centereach senior quarterback ran 10 times for 118 yards and a touchdown en route to the Cougars’ 19-9 home opening win over North Babylon Sept. 7. The victory also avenged a 14-4 first-round playoff loss.
“I have no words,” Demetres said, pointing down to an 11/11 written on a band around his wrist, which signified the day Centereach suffered its season-ending defeat. “Our whole summer was spent planning for them. We were playing today for our family, our community, the seniors we lost last year — there’s no better feeling than this.”
Centereach head coach Adam Barrett said it’s great for his team to be able to move forward from that loss early.
“It’s good to come out on the other side, it gets the monkey off our back,” he said. “We had 11 guys getting to the ball on every play — our pursuit was great all night. This win is a good catapult for the rest of the year.”
We wrote unfinished business on the back of our T-shirts for this game and the rest of our season for a reason. Last year was the best season in school history, but we’re planning to top that this year. — Devin Demetres
The teams were in a tight 6-3 contest at halftime, with Demetres providing the only first-half points to counter J.T. Padrone’s 17-yard field goal for North Babylon. The All-County returner scored a 67-yard touchdown run with 1:42 left in the second quarter.
“I started to get a cramp and I said to my running back, ‘I’m going to score this play,’” Demetres said, smiling. “We’d been planning to set up that play all night. Our line played great, everyone was making blocks and I saw a whole and shot up it. Our line dominated.”
That running back, junior Liam Webber, opened the second half with a 74-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put the Cougars ahead 12-3. He credited his teammate with helping him make the play happen after scooping up the ball on a bounce.
“I saw blockers ahead of me and Devin came out and made a great block,” Webber said. “I cut off him, I made a move and got down the sideline. We’re a good tandem. Devin is just so explosive. He can turn any play into a big score. It’s fun watching him.”
While Demetres said he was most nervous to see how his defense was going to perform after an unstoppable run last year, giving up an average of 11 points per game during a 7-2 season, multiple stops quickly put him at ease.
Senior linebacker Andrew Colletti made eight tackles and two sacks and junior David Adegoke added six tackles and a sack in the win. Junior running back and linebacker Eric Harrington, who had nine carries for 70 yards and a touchdown, also recorded six tackles. Two fumble recoveries added fuel to the Cougars’ fire, and ignited the fans in the packed stadium bleachers.
“That’s a huge momentum swing,” Webber said of the turnovers. “As long as we can get an extra possession like that it’s more points for us, and it’s less possession time for them. Our defense is smothering, and it’s going to be hard to score on us if we play like that every game.”
Demetres said nothing feels better than redemption, but added there will be more from the Cougars in the future.
“I feel relief, I’m not going to lie, there was a lot of stress on our chests,” he said. “But we wrote unfinished business on the back of our T-shirts for this game and the rest of our season for a reason. Last year was the best season in school history, but we’re planning to top that this year. We want people to know who Centereach is, and put ourselves on the map again.”
Desiree Keegan with Centereach Head Coach Adam Barrett on their season opening 19-9 victory over North Babylon pic.twitter.com/lICZH3m1Hl
— Axcess Football (@axcess_football) September 8, 2018
