Ward Melville football topples Longwood sparked by Joey Karpowicz's kickoff return for a touchdown
Ward Melville's Joey Karpowicz runs a kickoff back for a touchdown in the first quarter during a Suffolk Division I football game against visiting Longwood on Friday. Credit: Bob Sorensen
Liam Cronin said it best. The senior middle linebacker for host Ward Melville said the season opener against rugged Longwood would be a statement game. It was.
Ward Melville and Longwood ushered in the 2025 Suffolk Division I football season in grand style. On military appreciation night, the Patriots honored war veterans and military personnel at midfield before Owen Salemi (Ward Melville Class of 2038) flipped the first coin toss of the 2025 season.
On a beautiful Friday night under the bright lights in East Setauket, two of the top three seeds in Division I played to a packed house of more than 3,000 fans.
The teams traded touchdowns in the first four minutes before kick returner Joey Karpowicz electrified the crowd with the go-ahead 87-yard return for a touchdown as Ward Melville scored four unanswered touchdowns for a 35-7 win in the National Football Foundation’s Kickoff Classic.
“The kick return was a big momentum shift in the game,” Karpowicz said. “Cronin annihilated a player with a huge block to set my path. And I had a 10-foot hole and two kids to beat down the sideline. It was the first return [for a touchdown] in my career. I thought it was tone-setting and flipped the whole game our way.”
Longwood never recovered, punting on three of its next four possessions and having a pass intercepted.
“I was happy with the way we came out for the game.” Ward Melville coach Chris Boltrek said. “We had strong leaders last year. We needed to make a statement, and I challenged them to find their identity. We don’t have a single player on the roster from our county championship team of 2022. It hit me right away they were making a statement for themselves.”
Ward Melville did it with gritty defense and a balanced offense.
The Patriots opened the game with an eight-play, 69-yard touchdown drive capped by a Joe Benedetto 7-yard touchdown run. Ethan Jargo hit the extra-point to make it 7-0.
Longwood responded with a five-play, 77-yard scoring drive capped by a Kyon Sarwari 51-yard burst over right tackle for the score. Cameron Clemons added the point after and four minutes into the game it was tied at 7.
On the ensuing kickoff, Karpowicz gathered the kick at the 13 and gave the Patriots the lead for good with the return for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead.
“He’s an exciting player,” Boltrek said.
The Ward Melville defense shut it down from there behind tackle Miles Hatcher-Robertson and linebackers Cronin and Nick Levine.
“We do swarm drills every day,” Cronin said. “We focus and preach team tackling. We made some adjustments mid-game; our coaches are very good at that.”
Ward Melville extended the first half lead when Karpowicz made a 22-yard diving, one-handed catch in the back of the end zone to make it 21-7.
“It was a post route with a bunch of hitches, they brought the safety up and the d-back was pressing up on me,” Karpowicz said. “Hudson [Philbrick] put some air under the throw so I could get to it.”
Philbrick, who completed three of five passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns, found JJ Alcindor for 44 yards to the 5 setting up the score.
Philbrick made it a three-score lead at 28-7 with a 2-yard run before the half ended. The offensive line of center Quinn Kurtz, guards Will Killigrew and Brody Mangano and tackles Victor Bergamaschi and Levine cleared the way for Ward Melville to total 322 yards.
“Hudson came out as a leader and executed our offense taking the next step as our leader,” Boltrek said. “He worked hard all off season and you can see the agility and shiftiness in his runs. He’s quicker.”
Benedetto scored his second touchdown on a 74-yard catch and run down the home sideline to make it 35-7 in the third quarter. He had a well-placed stiff arm to thwart one tackler at the line of scrimmage, broke two other tackles and outran the secondary for the score.
“I was here a couple hours before kickoff, all the guys warming up during pregame, and they got the playlist going,” said Ward Melville alum JJ Laap, a Newsday All-Long Island selection, who graduated in 2019. “It’s the same exact playlist they played when I was playing, so a couple songs came on, and I was getting goosebumps. It’s special.”
Cronin was right about this being a statement game. Ward Melville made a loud one.