South Side football's Rob Cesario tosses two TDs to help beat previously unbeaten Wantagh
South Side quarterback Rob Cesario Jr. runs the option play during a Nassau Conference III football game against host Wantagh on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
It was time for the South Side football team to make a statement. That statement has been made — and it is as big a statement as anyone has made this year.
The visiting Cyclones took on unbeaten Wantagh in a regular-season finale clash on Saturday, with significant playoff seeding implications at stake. South Side’s defense met the challenge, taking the ball away four times and allowing 268 scrimmage yards in a 21-14 win.
South Side (7-1) earned the second seed in the Nassau Conference III playoffs, which begin next week, and knocked Wantagh (7-1) from first to third. Plainedge claimed the top seed.
“Coming into this game, we knew this was one of our last guaranteed games we’re going to play,” senior AJ Magaraci said. “We knew if we were going to win, it was going to come through our defense.”
Wantagh’s offense marched into Cyclones territory to start the second quarter. On fourth-and-5 from South Side’s 44-yard line, junior running back Luke Martini took a lateral pass to the left and got stonewalled by a trio of defenders. Martini tried lateralling the ball to a teammate, but it rolled loose on the turf.
Magaraci scooped up the fumble and ran 48 yards for the touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.
“The second I saw him throw that ball, I knew I had to set the tone for our team, get both the offense and defense rolling and bring that thing back for a touchdown,” Magaraci said.
On the ensuing possession, Wantagh drove to the Cyclones’ 34-yard line. Wantagh ran a double-pass, but pressure by senior Ryan Solomon forced an underthrown ball, which Magaraci picked off.
From there, junior Rob Cesario Jr. led South Side on an eight-play drive, highlighted by a 38-yard completion to senior Reagan Petrone. With 13 seconds left in the first half, Cesario rolled to his right and dumped it off to junior Kieran Vetter, who rumbled down the sideline for a 10-yard touchdown to go up 14-0.
After halftime, Wantagh rode Martini heavily. On the fourth play of the third quarter, he turned the right corner for a 32-yard touchdown, cutting the lead to 14-7. But Cesario completed a 35-yard pass to Vetter, a 26-yard throw to Solomon and a 19-yard touchdown to junior Alexander Provost to restore the 14-point cushion.
Senior linebacker Ethan Johnson intercepted a pass on the ensuing possession to preserve the lead. Wantagh’s defense responded by forcing a three-and-out, allowing its offense to march down the field, setting up Martini for a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:48 remaining in the game.
The Cyclones went three-and-out again after that, but on the first play of Wantagh’s next drive, Petrone intercepted Avena with 5:32 left, allowing their offense to run the clock out.
“We knew we needed a stop to win this,” Petrone said. “We’ve done that all year. I knew I had to play inside the numbers because they were running slants all game, and I just saw the ball falling to me and had to make a play.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
