Sports

Hunter’s two picks make Porters winners

Antoine Hunter, who made two interceptions, returning one 82 yards for a touchdown, tried to run over Southampton’s Conal Wood.


Antoine Hunter probably could not have scripted it any better for himself. As one of 16 seniors on the Greenport/Southold/Mattituck/Shelter Island high school football team, he must have appreciated the homecoming victory as much as anyone else. But being the hero of the game just made things sweeter still for him.


“I’m so happy,” he said.


And Hunter had good cause to be. He returned the first of his first two career interceptions 82 yards for a touchdown, snapping a 20-20 tie late in the game and giving the Porters a 26-20 homecoming victory over the Southampton Mariners on Friday night at Greenport High School. It was the second win in a row for the Porters (2-3 overall and in Suffolk County Division IV), who had ended a 10-game losing streak a week earlier.


Hunter is not only one of the fastest players on the team, but he’s also one of the strongest. That combination of assets was one of the reasons why the Porters recently moved him from the defensive line to inside linebacker where he has made good use of his skills.


“He’s a playmaker,” said Tom Mangiamele, one of the Porters’ assistant coaches.


Southampton quarterback Lester Pettaway (10 of 22, 185 yards, three interceptions), who did not play in the first quarter for disciplinary reasons, was pressured by the Porters’ Marcos Borroya and Dan Canales when he threw the first pass that Hunter picked off. Hunter took the ball down the sideline for the go-ahead score with 3:04 remaining in the game.


“That was amazing,” said Porters defensive tackle Alex Passanant, who had an interception himself to go with a game-high 12 tackles.


Then, with Southampton (2-3, 2-3) threatening to score a tying touchdown, Hunter intercepted another Pettaway pass in his own end zone with two seconds to go, sealing the triumph. It was the fourth ball intercepted by the Porters on the night.


Coach Jim Anderson, who had a celebratory bucket of water tossed at him by Kenny Black and Nick Cosgrove afterward, said it was the best game the Porters have played in his two years in charge of the team.


The Porters lost their starting quarterback and linebacker, Dan Letteriello, when he sprained his left, non-throwing shoulder while making a tackle in the second quarter. Anderson said the injury wasn’t serious enough to prevent Letteriello from playing in the team’s next game Friday night at the Stony Brook School.


Southampton came up short despite holding significant advantages over the Porters in first downs (15-6), rushing yards (166-34) and total offensive yardage (351-185).


“We had chances, we just didn’t make it happen,” Southampton Coach Darren Phillips said. “They made the big plays tonight, and we didn’t.”


The Porters got inspired play from a defense spearheaded by Passanant, Matt Grzesik (11 tackles) and Hunter (nine tackles, three passes defended). “Our defense just kept hitting and hitting and hitting,” said Hunter.


In what was largely a game of mistakes, both teams scored their first touchdown following an interception. An interception by Southampton’s Conal Wood set up Patrick Tuths’ 3-yard score in the first quarter. Then, one play after an interception by Dantré Langhorne, Letteriello ran back and scooped up a fumbled shotgun snap before tossing a pass to Ted Stevens, who ran it in for a 32-yard score in the second quarter.


But Southampton still led, 8-6, thanks to Onajja Browning’s two-point run after the game’s first touchdown. But that lead didn’t survive the half.


Mike Mangiamele, a junior who came in at quarterback after Letteriello got hurt, fired a nine-yard touchdown pass to Stevens with 56 seconds left in the first half. Mangiamele then found Langhorne for the two-point conversion and a 14-8 Porters’ lead.


It was the first of two touchdown passes for Mangiamele. On a third-and-20 play in the third quarter, he hit Tremayne Hansen on a 70-yard pass that made it 20-8.


But Southampton didn’t sit still. The Mariners responded with a touchdown of their own five plays later when Browning carried the ball 8 yards around the right end for a score without anyone laying a hand on him. That made it a 6-point game.


A 12-play drive by Southampton concluded with Isiah Thomas (11 carries, 96 yards) running 19 yards up the middle untouched, tying the score at 20-20 with 7:33 to go in the game. Phil McEnroe and Chris Schantz stopped Pettaway on his attempted run for two points.


Back-to-back unsportsmanlike conduct penalties by Southampton led to one of its players, Andrew Phillips, being ejected with 1:29 left to play.


After starting the season with three losses, it appears as if the Porters have found their way. Now they have a chance to reach .500 tomorrow.


“We turned the corner,” Tom Mangiamele said. “When you have three losses, you’re looking into their eyes, you don’t know what to say to them. But I think now they believe a little bit in themselves. They survived.”