It\u2019s a connection that helped lead the Syosset girls basketball team to the state semifinal in March. Now, it’s leading\u00a0the school’s\u00a0flag football team to its most successful season yet.<\/p>\n
Senior Kate Nelmes\u00a0was\u00a0recruited to play by teammate Ivy Matthews,\u00a0and the pair demonstrated how they’re able to bring their chemistry from the court to the field as they connected for two touchdowns in\u00a0Friday night’s 19-0 home win over\u00a0Valley Stream District in the rain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nelmes opened up the scoring with 10:38 left in the first half when she\u00a0grabbed a 24\u2013yard touchdown pass from Matthews.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had to be careful with the football because it was raining,\u201d Nelmes said. \u201cEvery time [Matthews] has the ball, I just run as fast as I can. I know she\u2019ll be able to hit me wherever I end up.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a defensive stop, three receptions from Sienna Cummo and a 26-yard run from Matthews, Syosset faced a fourth-and-goal from the 8. Matthews found Nelmes in the end zone with 3:18 on the clock, and Matthews added the conversion to bring Syosset to a 13-0 lead at the half.<\/p>\n
Both teams were scoreless in the second half until the final seconds. Matthews intercepted Valley Stream District\u2019s pass with just less than a minute left. Then, on the final play of the game, she ran free for a 79-yard touchdown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly don\u2019t even know what happened there,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cI remember running past those first two defenders and just thinking, \u2018let\u2019s go all the way.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Angelina James of Valley Stream tries to get around Sienna Cummo of Syosset during a Nassau Conference A flag football game in Syosset on Friday, May 9, 2025. Credit: Peter Frutkoff<\/p>\n
Matthews completed 16\u00a0of 23\u00a0passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns. She\u00a0added four flag pulls.\u00a0Mia Barrie had seven flag pulls and three sacks. Lauren Alvarez had a sack for Valley Stream District (11-2).<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to join flag football this season because I would always hear from Ivy and the other girls just how much fun it is,\u201d said Nelmes, who also had a sack.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s my senior year.\u00a0I just thought, \u2018why not?’ “<\/p>\n
Syosset’s success this season means a lot to Matthews, who\u00a0along with teammates Taylor Brecher and Julia Weiss\u00a0helped bring the flag football program to fruition just three years ago. Now, Syosset is 11-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great to see it all come together,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never done this well before, and I feel like since it\u2019s our third year, we\u2019re finally getting the hang of it and have a better feel for our opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a connection that helped lead the Syosset girls basketball team to the state semifinal in March. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,7719,14065,14063,14064],"class_list":{"0":"post-37908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hs-flag-football","10":"tag-syosset","11":"tag-valley-stream-central","12":"tag-valley-stream-north"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114481115182616511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}