Dalers Win Big
On January 3rd, 2019 the Massapequa Chiefs traveled to Farmingdale High School to face their cross-town rival, the Dalers. Coach Pastier and the Dalers were coming off a convincing win against Floral Park six days earlier, and a few days of practice in preparation for the rivalry game. Sitting at five wins and one loss, Farmingdale was feeling confident and ready to win a big game against the Chiefs. Being a team composed of excellent athletes, Coach Pastier knew he would be able to give the Chiefs difficulty on offense if he implemented the full court press defense. Massapequa would not be able to run up and down the court all game long and keep up with the Dalers, and eventually they would run out of gas. The fast paced, energetic style of play from the Dalers proved to be too much for the Chiefs to handle. As the game progressed, Massapequa began to do exactly what Pastier had hoped they would: turn the ball over due to the pressure, and give his team easy baskets.
Junior Marvel Chambers led the way for Farmingdale with 15 points and excellent defense, as he was involved in the full court press success turning steals into fast break layups. Chambers also added ten rebounds for his team to go along with the scoring and defense. It was a complete game from Marvel and his teammates; everyone did their job and they came through with the crucial in Conference win.
After the game, Junior starting point guard Dan Brady discussed the team’s mindset: “We expected to win and were confident, and ended up with the result we wanted.” The confidence from Brady and the Dalers was an important factor in the Dalers winning by such a big margin. Farmingdale played aggressive, fast, and did not hesitate when shooting the basketball. When I asked Brady if they were surprised to beat a good team by so much, he said, “No, we thought we were the better team and knew we could take care of business.” Farmingdale hopes to take this dominating performance and carry it into their upcoming games as they look to make a playoff run in a very difficult conference. With the defense of Farmingdale leading to easy offense, the full court press is definitely something we should expect to see more of from the Dalers, especially when they are scoring as well as they did against Massapequa. It was a successful Thursday night at Farmingdale High School, the Dalers won big, and the fans went home happy.