Football official Carl Superina injured during Garden City-East Islip Long Island championship game

Carl Superina has seen some hard hits over the years as a football official. For the past 28 years, he’s had his share of close calls on the gridiron. But on Saturday afternoon, the 72-year-old Superina, the head official of one of Suffolk’s top officiating crews, couldn’t avoid a big hit.

East Islip defensive end Jovan Bonilla was in pursuit of Garden City quarterback Brayden Robertiello, who rolled to his right and tried to elude the hard-charging 6-2, 235-pound end. Robertiello fled right toward Superina, who couldn’t get out of the way. Bonilla tackled Robertiello and both players crashed into Superina.

The crowd gasped as Superina lay motionless on the Stony Brook University turf. After a 15-minute delay, he was helped to his feet and taken to the locker room.

“The play was coming to my side. I was trying to follow the play and I got caught,” Superina said. “It was like a chop block, one guy went low, one went high, and I went down.”

He suffered a shoulder injury and left the stadium for X-rays.

“He was alert on the field and complained of shoulder pain,” said Dr. James Paci, who is the attending physician for the Long Island Championships. “We brought him into the locker room for further evaluation. He was taken to Orlin & Cohen in Bohemia, where he had X-rays and was referred to the emergency room at Mather Hospital for further management.”

Official Tom Magier came off the chain crew to fill in for Superina and finish the game.

“We have an extra crew on for things like this, and when a man goes down such as today, we bring one of them on the field,” Section XI executive director said Tom Combs, who added: “It goes through his insurance first, and then we pick up whatever is left.”

Superina told Newsday he was disappointed about the accident.

“I’m sad because I waited all year for this game,” he said. “But the number of coaches and officials who called me all afternoon to check in was phenomenal.”

During the holidays, Superina becomes Santa Claus at various events, including one on Friday at the Smithtown Theater for a community showing of “The Polar Express.”

“Well, now I have to see if it can happen,” Superina said. “I was really looking forward to it, and I was also looking forward to being Santa for my new grandson Krew and the rest of my seven other grandchildren. But Santa will find a way.”

Newsday’s Gregg Sarra contributed to this story.