Ward Melville QB Hudson Philbrick scores 4 TDs on ground, adds another through air in win over Floyd
Quarterback Hudson Philbrick of Ward Melville keeps the ball and runs it against Floyd during the first quarter of a Suffolk Division I football gameon Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026 in East Setauket. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Ward Melville’s football team is finally at full strength.
Quarterback Hudson Philbrick is a happy camper.
The senior Stony Brook commit had 10 carries for 161 yards and four touchdowns and completed 7 of 13 passes for 225 yards and a TD to lead host Ward Melville to a 44-27 win over Floyd in Suffolk Division I on Saturday.
With Joe Karpowicz, Demetrius Matte and Will Killigrew returning to the lineup, it was the first time the Patriots had all their starters healthy this season.
“It’s just a morale booster,” Philbrick said. “Without them, we still have to do what we do best. But with them, it just uplifts everybody because those are guys you want to have around you on the field.”
Karpowicz, the winner of last year’s NFF Receiver Award as Suffolk’s most outstanding receiver, missed the last two games with mononucleosis. Philbrick targeted his 6-2, 200-pound receiver early and often, but the connection just wasn’t there.
“I was getting a little jittery for those first few throws because I was getting hit while I was throwing,” Philbrick said. “As a quarterback, I have to get a good strong base and deliver better passes. That’s what happened.”
On Ward Melville’s first play of the second half with the score tied at 21, Philbrick hit Karpowicz for a 51-yard bomb down the right sideline. The drive stalled after a pass was tipped and intercepted by Derek Glock.
The Patriot defense forced a punt, but the snap went out of the back of the end zone for a safety, giving Ward Melville a 23-21 lead.
On the first play of the Patriots’ next drive, Karpowicz dove for a 42-yard grab. Philbrick bruised his way in for a 15-yard TD on the next play for a 30-21 lead with 5:12 left in the third quarter.
“I haven’t been able to practice or do much, so it took me a little bit to settle in, catch my breath and catch up to Hudson’s arm,” Karpowicz said. “Once we figured it out, there’s really no stopping it. It’s a really strong connection.”
“It’s just business as usual,” Philbrick said. “We work on that all the time and just because there was a little break in between, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t still be hitting that over and over again.”
Philbrick added a 1-yard TD run to extend the lead to 37-21 later in the quarter. His 56-yard TD pass to Angelo Sorbera on a post route gave the Patriots a 44-21 lead with 9:02 left in the fourth.
“That touchdown was Hudson’s call,” coach Chris Boltrek said. “I called a play, he saw something and called something different at the line of scrimmage. When you have a kid who just operates at a football IQ of that level with the physical ability that he has, you just can’t defend him.”
Karpowicz caught three passes for 101 yards and had an interception. Nicholas Levine and Logan Schaefer each forced a fumble, both of which were recovered by Austin Sicoli.
“Those guys make it so I don’t have to worry about the run and I can be patient with my reads,” Karpowicz said.
Davonte Medlock ran for a touchdown and caught a 31-yard TD pass from Alex Salamone for Floyd (2-2). Salamone added also threw a 14-yard TD pass to Glock and Rylee Permenter had a 6-yard TD run.
Chris Retzlaff ran for a 20-yard score for Ward Melville (4-0). Though the Patriots finally had their starting lineup back, they didn’t exit Saturday’s game completely unscathed.
While sprinting down the sideline on the second drive of the game, Boltrek pulled both his hamstrings. He was tended to by athletic trainers, who applied Icy Hot and wrapped his hamstrings in athletic tape. He couldn’t move around the sideline as much as he normally would, but he toughed the injury out.
“I guess somebody’s got to get hurt,” Boltrek laughed. “We can’t have it be totally perfect.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
