Garden City football tops Carey on Mark Escher's 25-yard FG with just seconds left
Mark Escher of Garden City puts his team in the lead with his field goal with just seconds left during a Nassau Conference II football game against Carey on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 in Garden City. Credit: Dawn McCormick
All eyes were on the right leg of Mark Escher.
The 6-3, 185-pound lineman serves as Garden City’s kicker. And his prior field goal attempt to give the Trojans the lead had missed wide left.
Now, the junior was kicking with the wind in his face, and seven seconds left in the game with Garden City trailing by two points.
The snap from Ben Smith and the hold by Brayden Robertiello were clean. Escher swung his leg and watched his kick go over the outstretched hands of two Carey rushers and head toward the left upright.
The ball stayed just inside the post and the 25-yard field goal was good with 2.5 seconds left, lifting host Garden City to a 13-12 win over Carey in Nassau Conference II football Saturday afternoon.
“The wind at the last second blew it back to the right,” Escher said. “It’s a really special moment. I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life.”
The moment was made possible by the Trojans’ offense. Carey (5-1) punted the ball back to Garden City (5-1) with 1:01 remaining. The Trojans had no timeouts left and started their drive on their own 27-yard line.
Robertiello, Garden City's quarterback, was surgical. Two quick completions to Max Siragusa and a 15-yard defensive pass interference penalty drawn by Kosta Walsh brought the Trojans to Carey’s 42-yard line. Christian Roddini had a 7-yard reception but was tackled in bounds, forcing the Trojans to spike the ball to stop the clock.
Then Robertiello rolled right and fired to Walsh, who made a nifty toe-drag catch on the sideline for 11 yards. Robertiello went right back to Walsh, who made a leaping grab over a defender on the right sideline before falling out of bounds at the 7-yard line.
“I wasn’t sure if I was in, so I was just hoping the ref didn’t start signaling incomplete,” Walsh said. “Brayden and I are always on the same page and he trusted me to make that play.”
“If we ran a more pass-heavy offense, I think Kosta would be the best receiver on Long Island,” Robertiello said. “He comes down with everything.”
And after all that, the Trojans still had time to call a run play, which was stopped for 1-yard loss inbounds, before executing another spike to set up Escher’s kick.
“We practice those situations and it was the first one we’ve really had to execute with a lot of pressure on because we were down,” coach Dave Ettinger said. “Brayden made some great throws and our guys made some incredible catches.”
Mason Simon recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff giving the Seahawks the ball on Garden City’s 33-yard line. Two plays later, Justin DePietro broke a 28-yard TD run to the right, but Garden City blocked the PAT.
Robertiello hit Siragusa on a 17-yard TD pass to give Garden City a 7-6 lead with 5:10 left in the first quarter.
DePietro bounced off a tackler in the backfield and stretched his arms out for a 2-yard TD run with 8:07 left in the second quarter, but the PAT hit off the right upright and the Seahawks led 12-7.
Escher drilled a 31-yard field goal to cut Carey’s lead to 12-10 with 3:28 left in the first half. Escher’s 32-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter broke left at the last second.
“I should’ve made that kick,” Escher said. “But you just have to forget about it and get ready for the next one. My teammates were hyping me up, so I was ready for the kick at the end of the game.”
DePietro had 28 carries for 116 yards and two touchdowns. DePietro, Sal D’Amato, David Avila and Matthew Lemite brought the physicality on both sides of the ball.
“DePietro is an outstanding football player on both sides of the ball. He’s physical, he’s fast and athletic. He’s a beast,” Ettinger said. “Carey is a very physical, talented football team. They played hard and we had trouble with them.”
Robertiello completed 12 of 23 passes for 162 yards and a TD, Siragusa had four catches for 55 yards and a TD, Walsh had three catches for 50 yards and Ben Smith had three grabs for 40 yards. Roddini rushed for 60 yards in place of Anthony Asaro, who was sidelined by a hamstring injury.
“Everyone lives for these games,” Robertiello said. “You have two great teams battling the whole game and it comes down to the last few seconds. You can’t ask for much better.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
