It’s Ragnarok and roll time for the Nassau champion Seaford Vikings.
The Norsemen of the South Shore march on to the Long Island championship on Saturday for “unfinished business” against Bayport-Blue Point, whom they fell to 42-20 in the 2023 football title game.
“It’s a full-circle moment,” senior running back Brian Falk, the school’s all-time yards record holder with over 4,350 yards, told The Post. “But will we win this time? It would sure be memorable and storybook.”
After all, the 10-1 team’s 2025 mantra has been all about a “revenge tour” and evening scores from years past, said senior quarterback Michael Spinella.
The Conference IV bunch was reeling from a fresher wound heading into this season — a 33-27 county semifinal heartbreak at the hands of the Plainedge Red Devils on a last-second Hail Mary last year.
“We wanted to get back up, and we just wanted to keep working together as brothers the whole offseason, going in the weight room, hitting the field,” Spinella said.
Bjorn-again Vikings
The superlative work also brought the boys closer to head coach Mike McHugh, who Falk said was “thrown into the fire” as a last-minute new hire that year.
“I think the bonding came quick,” McHugh said. “We all knew what happened last year, and we wanted to correct it, fix it, and we knew we could only do that together.”
It was an all-hands-on-deck commitment as last year’s seniors, for better or worse, sparked a fire on the Vikings’ offensive line.
“We were definitely doubted this year. People said that we were undersized and we weren’t strong,” senior center Thomas Mirenda said.
“It gave us some anger, and it just helped us out throughout the way,” added the 5-foot-10, 185-pound lineman.
As to how the line held up this year, McHugh said, “They’ve been playing unbelievably,” while Falk called his guys in the trenches “lights-out.” Spinella added, “I owe them dinner.”
(He will be coughing up big bucks at a steakhouse like Prime in Huntington if Mirenda gets his way).
The team building is also felt on defense, as junior free safety Jackson Pignataro said the seniors are making the gridiron a little smaller for the varsity newcomers.
“They’re always there for me. If I mess up, they make sure I keep my head high,” he said. “On the field, one bad play doesn’t mean anything.”
Dealing with occasional miscues became another important part of the Vikings’ success as well.
Plainedge still handed Seaford its only loss of the season with a 35-0 crusher that was, fittingly, on Halloween — but that’s in the rearview now. The Vikings finally exorcised their demons, overcoming the Red Devils 21-7 to win the county title last week.
“That was a redemption game,” said Falk, who will play lacrosse at West Point next year. “Finally being able to beat and take them down, especially in a championship, meant so much more.”
To Valhalla
Now with one final task at hand, it’s “Super Bowl” sentiments and “good vibes” for what will be Seaford’s last game of the year, where they can’t hold anything back, McHugh said.
It’s been a very “emotional” week, not only for the seniors — they gave jerseys to teachers who’ve made an impact on their four years in high school — but also for the coach.
“I’ve been mentored by some great coaches who’ve won it, and I’ve got a lot of other coaches rooting for me and helping me out as I go,” McHugh said. “It’s almost a testament to them that if we win this, it would not just be my win, it’s all the guys that helped me out throughout the years.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
