It was the big finish everyone came to see as part of a huge day for William Floyd running back Stacey Bedell.
“They kept saying, ‘Stacey when are you going to break a long run,'” he recalled.
The answer was the third quarter.
The 5-foot-11, 175-pound speedster finally broke free of New York City defense on a sudden cutback, getting into the second level and outrunning the city’s safeties to the end zone. The electric 92-yard score midway through the third quarter was the backbreaker in Long Island’s dominant 31-7 win over NYC in the 17th annual Empire Challenge senior all-star football game at Hofstra University Tuesday night. Bedell’s burst came immediately after NYC was stopped on a fourth-down run on the 1-yard line.
“My first touchdown was a short run,” said Bedell, who earned game MVP honors. “Everyone is used to me breaking a long run. I guess that one was it right there.”
It was the third time he found the end zone, his first two scores 1-yard runs in the first and third quarters, respectively. Bedell rushed 15 times for 137 yards altogether. He was coming off a remarkable season in which he ran for a Long Island Championship game-record 412 yards and scored four touchdowns in a 54-47 win over East Meadow. Bedell, the co-winner of the 2011 Hansen Award, given to the most outstanding player in Suffolk County, had 2,532 rushing yards as a senior, the third-highest total in Suffolk history.
“That was a big play for them, obviously,” NYC coach Sean O’Connor said of the 92-yard dash to pay dirt. “He put on the jets. He’s got some good explosion.”
Fort Hamilton’s Ibric leads NYC’s defensive effort: Mensur Ibric gave his team the playmaking lift it needed on defense. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound defensive end shot through the line and blocked Long Island’s first PAT attempt and earned a sack of kicker Ryan Norton after a botched snap after on the second extra point.
“The offense wasn’t really producing,” Ibric said. “The defense has to make plays, make things happen, pump the whole team up, get the momentum [on our side].”
It appeared the Sacred Heart-bound standout had made that play when he forced Isaiah Barnes to fumble and recovered the ball on the Long Island 48-yard line with New York City down just 12-0 midway through the second quarter. It came a play after Dan Low was intercepted by Brian VonBaren, but the city drive stalled at the Long Island 31.
“I just went and made the play, try to be an athlete,” Ibric said.
Empire Challenge enjoys second straight record-breaking crowd: Boomer Esiason said he is approached by kids all the time about the Empire Challenge, which benefits his foundation for cystic fibrosis.
“They say, ‘I’m going to be here in two years Mr. Esaison,’” the former New York Jets quarterback said. “It’s something to shoot for. We want to make it really special for them.”
The size of the crowds the last two years have shown exactly that. Last season they packed 11,992 people into Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. Tuesday night the record was shattered with 12,418 fans in the stands.
It showed Esaison that after 17 years, the game has taken hold as something people look forward to. Esiason feels it is better promoted better now through the media, particularly with his WFAN morning radio show he co-hosts with Craig Carton.
“What has taken root here is a lot of the younger kids who will be in the game next year will be in the crowd and kids that are ninth-graders, eighth-graders and seventh-graders come to this game,” Esiason said. “They have seen it over the years. Their parents have seen it.”