Panthers Devour Porters 54-0 in Football Opener

gearing up for a season opener against the Babylon Panthers, the Greenport-Mattituck-Southold-Shelter Island Porters were not able to score even one point against the dominating Panthers Friday night at Babylon High School.

The Panthers won the game with a final score of 54-0.

The first 15 seconds of play by Babylon set a dominant tone for what would be an offense-driven game as the Panthers scored their first of eight touchdowns with a 84-yard run by Eric Schweitzer.

Against an extraordinary Pathers' defense, the Porters ended up with negative yard gains in the last two quarters. Greenport’s inability to get near the end zone was due in big part to strong defense play by Panthers Nahari Jenkins, Greg Dietrich and Ryan Visgauss.

A fumble by Porters quarterback Ryan Malone led to Babylon possession with 3:24 in the first quarter and a 50-yard run by Frank Mankiewicz to put Babylon on Greenport’s goal line. Then it was Jeann Cruz's short run up the middle to make it 13-0 as the first quarter ended.

Later in the game, Panthers' Greg Dieterich recovered Greenport’s fumbled punt which then led to a series of short runs resulting in Babylon’s third touchdown of the game. The scoreboard stood at 20-0, with seven minutes left in the first half.

The Porters made a strong attempt to score on its next series of runs, but Panther Sean Kelly stopped them in their tracks and the Porters found themselves losing yardage. The teams headed into halftime with the score at 27-0.

The first minutes of the game's second half was déjà vu as Babylon’s Fredericks leapt into the end zone in the first 15 seconds of play and the score the stood at 34-0. It only got worse for the Porters as the halftime break clearly re-energized the Panthers’ defense.

While Greenport made a 25-yard return on the kick off, the squad continually loss yardage on drives thanks to defense work by Visgauss, Jenkins and AJ Sullivan. Panther Sean Kelly sacked Greenport’s Malone for a loss of 12 yards and that prompted Greenport to take a series of timeouts during the second half.

But the short strategy sessions didn’t do much to slow down Babylon’s defense or offense as Mankiewicz ran for 20 yards in the first play after Babylon regained possession and the Panthers landed on Greenport’s 28-yard line.

Two quick plays later the Panthers scored once again and with six minutes left in the game it was 40-0.

On the next Babylon possession Fredericks pitched the ball to Danny McHugh, with just under two minutes left in the game, and McHugh ran into the end zone for the second to last touchdown. Jenkins then intercepted a Greenport pass and ran it back for the final touchdown.

The Porters take on Shoreham-Wading River at Shoreham-Wading River on Sept. 17.