Before the season started, we had a pretty good idea about Shelton. With Ray Pendagast, Paul Piccirillo, Mike Georgalas, Ryan DeAngelis and Co., the new spread offense was going to score some points.
After a warmup against West Haven, it certainly did in this week two clash with Cheshire. But we also thought the defense was going to have trouble, especially against good running teams.
And it did in this game.
Cheshire ran roughshod over our Elite 8 No. 3 for gobs and gobs of real estate on Friday night. Cheshire quarterback Greg Palmer did something even his predecessor, the great Billy Ragone, never did at Cheshire, and that’s score five rushing touchdowns.
Heck, the only other Cheshire player to score five TDs in a game was assistant coach (and one of my Syracuse classmates) Kyle McIntosh when he was bulling over the Housatonic League back in the early ’90s.
(Another aside, Palmer used this phrase when talking about the Big Apple: “They tell me he was pretty good.” Really? Palmer was–what?–2 or 3 back then? God I’m getting old.)
Anyway… Shelton had no answer for Palmer, or his fellow QB Max Slade. The Gaels got hammered on the ground, which can’t be a good sign just two weeks into the season.
Georgalas’ TD late in the third quarter made it 28-25. But that’s when things finally fell apart for the Gaels. Cheshire scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it a 10-point game, and, when Shelton pressed to keep up, they made some errors that ultimately cost them the game.
Watch how it all went down Friday night (and disregard a couple of my dumb editing mistakes while you’re at it. We’re swapping this video out with a new one tomorrow).
So Shelton falls and gets another huge game next week vs. Xavier (at home this time, gentlemen).
While we still hold Shelton in relatively high regard in the rough-and-tumble SCC Division I. We’ll see what they’re made of.
Meanwhile, Cheshire looks like it’s no fluke. If we slotted the Rams into our coverage area, they’d be right around 4 or 5 right now in the Elite 8 (gotta work on that defense and those low snaps, fellas. Though I understand center Connor Hepler had some kind of an injury).
We’ll get a chance to look at them again Friday afternoon at Cross, which will be highlighted vs. Amity in our next video.
Loading ...
Shelton was a program that was once proud of their defense. State championship teams don’t give up 6 offensive td’s a game to anyone. Are they paying too much attention to that new spread offense in practice? What makes their defensive performance even worse is the fact that the Cheshire QB put the ball on the turf at least 10 times and easily picked it up and continued to run for huge gains. I hope part of Shelton’s problems was that two of the Gaels captains were not dressed due to injuries, but Cheshire continued to run the same couple of plays with no correction or changes to the Gaels defensive plan. Lets hope the Gaels coaches make some adjustments for Xavier and Hamden or they are facing a 1-3 start.
Comment by Dave k — September 29th, 2009 @ 7:23 am
Couldn’t agree more Dave. atleast 10 times the snap was bad and Palmer would pick it up and go upfield untouched !! D was pitiful
Comment by Fear the bird — September 29th, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
Problem with Shelton is they have to many players going both ways. They ran out of gas in the 3rd quarter. If your going to go both ways they shouldn’t take plays off on defense.
Comment by Pete — September 29th, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
What about the 1st qtr? They didn’t stop the run all night no matter how tired they were. they went 95 yards to start the game right after the shelton coach was wrong for not kicking the FG and taking 3-0 lead. Shelton had a nice drive there and should have taken the points. 4 plays later they were done 7-0.
Comment by Fear the bird — September 29th, 2009 @ 3:04 pm
The Gaels need to stop the run and key the QB more often.They are up against some very fast competition in thier respected division.The Gaels can produce the offense and points when needed.Thier back-up center held up well and was showing a alot of heart in that position,the Gaels needed him to step it up and he did just that.The Shelton defense is in need of a tune-up if they expect to keep up with Hamden and company.Xavier is going to run the ball down thier throats if the Gaels defensive line lets them.The Gaels are a very good team that played very poorly on stopping the Cheshire QB shuffle last friday night.Go Gaels!!!!!!!!
Comment by R-MAC — September 29th, 2009 @ 7:10 pm
I was a big fan of shelton’s football program until this year. It is poor coaching that is keeping a bunch of vey talented seniors from going to the playoffs. They “fixed” an offense that wasn’t broken and ignore’s a defense that needs changes. It will be sad if these kids start this season at 1-3 but the fact is that Xavier and Hamden are running teams.
Comment by 44 backer — September 29th, 2009 @ 8:48 pm