Do you know the Farmingdale football program’s expectations every year? Well if you don’t, let me tell you. For the Dalers, anything short of a Conference 1 Nassau County Championship is considered a failure. For other high school football teams, it’s a huge deal to just make it to the semifinal game at Hofstra University, but Buddy Krumenacker pushes the team toward excellence year in and year out. “Keep filling in those boxes, one box at a time,” coach Krum says  to every team when prepping for the playoffs, a reference to the playoff sign underneath the scoreboard. So were the expectations achieved in the 2018 season?

The season started off well in the summer for Farmingdale, all the way back in July. New coaches joined the coaching staff; Steve Probst was added to become the offensive coordinator and Matthew Williams joined the linemen coaching staff. However, the Dalers had to overcome many obstacles early in the season as well. A summer injury occured to who would have been the senior starting quarterback, Matt Olbeter, but this now opened the door for rising junior Nick Lundin.

After all of the grueling summer workouts, it was go time. The Dalers were taking on the Red Devils of Freeport. Farmingdale was the two-seed and Freeport was the one-seed to start off the year. From the very start of the game, you knew it was going to be a long day for Farmingdale. Bad snaps, no blocking and, bad defensive plays contributed to a Daler loss.

However, after this game, the Dalers went on a run and improved to a 4-1 record. Farmingdale was now taking on Oceanside who were also 4-1. Farmingdale was ready to seek revenge, as they lost to Oceanside by a huge margin at Hofstra last year. The game was a back and forth battle, and Oceanside ended up with the win. The Dalers yet again put the game behind them and went into the playoffs with no more losses. The boys in green and white were ready for the “yoffs.” They had a final record of 6-2 and were the two-seed in the playoffs.

Coach Krum was ready to go as he was preparing all week for Farmingdale’s playoff week one opponent. “Just half the field and we’ll be fine,” he said. The Dalers marched all over East Meadow in the first round of the playoffs. Now it was time for Hofstra. Farmingdale was given another chance to beat Oceanside after their disappointing loss earlier in the year. Farmingdale knew what they had to do to try and overcome Oceanside and Coach Blount. Coach Krum gave his pre-game speech: “Don’t look back in the rear view mirror, play for four seconds at a time. Have each other’s backs and play every down like its your last.” As the game came to a conclusion, Farmingdale got taken down yet again by Oceanside in what was another disappointing finish for Farmingdale.

The Dalers finished with a final record of of 7-3. Farmingdale moved on and is ready for next year. The Dalers have many returning starters and upcoming seniors who have the talent to take on starting roles. The Dalers had four all-county players, Sean Sullivan, Kevin Wilson, Glavins Hogarth, and Tyler Nemceck. Key players to watch for the 2019 Season for Farmingdale are, Kevin Wilson (RB,LB), Nick Lundin (QB), Danny Hickey (G,DE), Neil Levantini (FB,DE), Nick Armano (T) and Will McCarthy (WR,S).