Anthony DiNello’s late touchdown lifts Massapequa over Oceanside in Nassau I football

The back-and-forth second half had shifted back toward Oceanside. And so Massapequa was looking up from five points down and starting a drive from its own 32 on its Berner Middle School turf with just 1:52 showing on the scoreboard clock.

The thought from the offense? “It’s time to go to work,” senior Anthony DiNello said.

Junior quarterback Luke Garguilo moved them to the Oceanside 47 with two throws. Three plays later, he kept the ball, bounced outside to his left and raced 38 yards for the go-ahead score.

Hold on. Holding penalty. More work to do.

Four plays later, DiNello ran left and carried the ball in from the 4 with 40.2 seconds left. Garguilo hit Cole Villalta for two. And Joe Brooks stopped the Sailors with an interception on the fifth play of their desperation drive.

Garguilo ended up throwing for 199 yards and a touchdown and running for 134 and a TD, and his two-time defending Long Island Class I championship team outlasted formidable Oceanside 36-33 in a Nassau I thrill ride under the lights Friday night.

“It’s resilience,” coach Kevin Shippos said. “That’s the way the kids are. We practice. We call it Mayday alert. It’s the two-minute offense where we’re working the ball down the field. Our offensive coordinator, Mike Ambury, he’s as good as it gets in terms of calling plays.”

So Massapequa is off to a 4-0 start. But it isn’t time to get overamped with thoughts of a three-peat just yet.

“It is still only Week 4,” DiNello said. “We still have a lot to work on. … But we’re going to enjoy it while we can and move on, learn a lot of lessons. But the win feels good.”

Shippos was feeling bad late in the game.

Oceanside (2-2) was driving toward a go-ahead TD. It converted on fourth-and-1 at the Massapequa 29 when Chace Morris rushed for the yard. Shippos, who already had one sideline warning, didn’t like the spot and headed out on the field to protest.

Fifteen-yard penalty.

“I lost this game,” Shippos said into his headset.

Morris soon ran it in from the 2 with 1:55 remaining. Morris then tried to run for two, but Brooks stopped him short. So it was 33-28, Oceanside.

“I preach to these guys all the time about holding composure and I lost mine,” Shippos said. “If the game would’ve went the other way, it would’ve been hard to swallow. … But to their credit, they picked me up. I’ve got to do better as a coach.”

Oceanside scored on its three first-half possessions. Shane Harmon, who went 16-for-19 overall for 158 yards, threw two TD passes to Nicholas Carentz, and the Sailors owned a 21-7, second-quarter lead.

Then Garguilo, a backup QB and receiver last season, found Villalta for a 28-yard score as time expired. So it was a seven-point game at the intermission.

“We know he’s a great athlete,” Shippos said of Garguilo. “He can run it. He can throw it. Extremely smart.”

DiNello ran 1 yard for a touchdown in the third. It was 21-all. Carentz countered with a 62-yard touchdown run. But Andrew Pedalino burst in from the 1 on the third play of the fourth. Chris Bascetta’s PAT meant Massapequa led 28-27.

There were a few more twists and turns to go.

But as Garguilo said: “Our guys just came through today.”