{"id":467759,"date":"2026-09-18T09:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467759\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T09:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:16:09","slug":"walker-10s-battle-through-rain-for-6-0-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467759\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker 10s battle through rain for 6-0 victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Game
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It was wet. It was gritty. It was a battle from start to finish. And when the rain-soaked thriller finally ended on Sunday, the Garden City Thunder Walker 10s had done exactly what they needed to do\u2014they held strong until the very end and walked away with a hard-earned 6\u20130 victory over the Long Beach Bulldogs.\u00a0In a game defined by defense, field position and sheer determination, the Thunder \u2013 Walker 10s \u2013 showed why they can be described in one simple phrase: Thunder Tough.<\/p>\n

Garden City opened the game with the ball, receiving the kickoff at midfield. Solid runs by Graham Baebler (24), Branson Pepicelli (7) and Patrick Hannan (8) moved the Thunder downfield, but Long Beach\u2019s defense held firm, forcing Garden City to turn the ball over on downs at the Bulldogs\u2019 30-yard line.\n<\/p>\n

Long Beach quickly threatened on its next possession, breaking off a huge run and appearing poised to score first.\u00a0Then came one of the game\u2019s biggest defensive plays:\u00a0Danny Eng (16) delivered a huge hit that forced a fumble, and Braden Connolly (72) recovered, stopping the Long Beach threat and giving Garden City possession.\n<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs\u2019 defense answered right back, forcing a three-and-out and a Thunder punt that put Long Beach at the GC 42-yard line.\u00a0Four plays later, Garden City\u2019s defense came through again. With Long Beach attempting to move the ball through the air, Anthony Canner (30) made a big play, knocking down the pass and giving the Thunder the ball back on downs.\n<\/p>\n

This time, Garden City capitalized.\u00a0A series of powerful runs by Baebler, Hannan and Pepicelli, combined with outstanding blocking and discipline from the offensive line, moved the Thunder steadily down the field.\n<\/p>\n

Up front, James Immordino (2), Patrick Gomoka (6), Ciaran Manley (5), Jack Miller (3), Danny Eng (16) and Braden Connolly (72) helped create the running lanes, while C Harris Delaney (2) kept Long Beach guessing with a wicked cadence that\u00a0Quarterback Declan Walker (9)\u00a0used to perfection, drawing Long Beach offsides and putting the Thunder at first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.\n<\/p>\n

From there, Garden City finished the drive the way they had played the entire game \u2014 tough.\u00a0The Thunder punched it into the end zone for the game\u2019s first and only touchdown, taking a 6\u20130 lead into halftime.\n<\/p>\n

The second half became a defensive tug-of-war.\u00a0Both teams battled through the pouring rain, and neither was willing to give an inch. Long Beach had a pair of opportunities to change the game, but the Thunder defense refused to break.\n<\/p>\n

Another key moment came when Connolly (72)\u00a0stripped the ball from the Bulldogs, having\u00a0Gomoka (6) recover the fumble.\u00a0Later, with Long Beach threatening again deep along the sideline, Miller (3) came up with a huge tackle to stop the drive.\n<\/p>\n

From there, the Thunder defense continued to stand tall;\u00a0Alexander Virzera (17), Gus Casano (25), Jack Chiara (26) and Declan Montegari (33) all contributed to the defensive stand as Garden City protected its narrow lead. Even injured teammate James Kelly (43) was making his presence felt from the sideline, cheering his teammates on through every snap.\n<\/p>\n

With the rain continuing to fall and the clock winding down, the Thunder kept battling.\u00a0As the final seconds ticked away, Garden City took a knee to officially close out the victory\u2014a fitting ending to a game that demanded toughness, discipline and belief from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.\n<\/p>\n

The coaches couldn\u2019t have been prouder of how their team battled, holding on to their slim lead to win 6-0.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Next up: The Thunder return home Friday, September 18 at 5:30 p.m. at Community Park, where they will take on the Plainedge Bobcats.\n<\/p>\n

Go Thunder!\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was wet. It was gritty. It was a battle from start to finish. And when the rain-soaked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-467759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}