News, analysis, commentary and features on southwestern Connecticut high school athletics and beyond with Connecticut Post online producer and writer Sean Patrick Bowley and correspondent Henry Chisholm
October 31, 2009 at 12:28 pm by Sean Patrick Bowley
Welcome back to our weekly live high school football scoring updates feature. If you can’t get to the game, but want to follow everything that’s happening across the Connecticut High School Football world live, just click the window below.
We will be covering as many games as possible with our staff. Some of the games we will have include Bethel at Notre Dame-Fairfield, Bassick vs. Darien and Harding at Norwalk.
But we need your help to get more. If you’re going to a game, and want to join in our live scoring updates, use a Twitter account and send your updates through your mobile phone. Remember, you must put #ctfb at the end of your tweets for it to show up.
With everybody using #ctfb, you can get updates from your phone, as well by searching #ctfb on Twitter.
So the noose is tightening in that playoff race with just three regular season games to go. Glastonbury was the only Class LL team that didn’t play Friday night. The Tomahawks are home vs. Newington Saturday.
Hey! And.. by the way CIAC football committee:
Did you get this news?
Greenwich had to kneel… four times! …In the third quarter! …to avoid going over 50 points in their game against Westhill. And this after Westhill went for it on fourth down in their own territory. So Greenwich has to kneel and give them the ball back. Are you kidding me with this stuff?
Get rid of the 50-point abomination. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get rid of it.
Get rid of it.
OK, onward…
In Class L, Masuk and Pomperaug (yawn) both won again, making the SWC playoff race and half of the Class L playoff race almost moot.
I’m going to see Bethel against ND-Fairfield Saturday to check up on the Wildcats, see if they have any shot against Masuk next week.
Notre Dame-West Haven beat Hand 28-14, but needed to rally from two TDs down at halftime (must have been a lot of gnawed-off fingernails in Green Knight land — they’re currently sitting in fifth place in that division already).
Simsbury further legitimized itself with a win over Southington. Conard plays Bristol Central Saturday.
Class MM is going to be the New Canaan Invitational, unless the Rams completely collapse — they have Greenwich, Central and Darien yet to play. Darien, which plays Bassick today, is chugging along. Playoffs will certainly be on the line in this year’s Turkey Bowl.
Class M is mildly interesting for us with Bethel still in the mix (alas, Masuk looms)
Bullard-Havens, which has Cheney Tech at home today, is making a move in the division as well — and making lots of people nervous, especially in Trumbull. Longshot Foran is seventh after a surprisingly easy win over Sheehan.
And in S, Ansonia is in dire need of help at No. 7 behind (in ascending order) Cromwell, Prince Tech, Hyde, Northwest Catholic, East Catholic and Bloomfield. That deficit should spook any Ansonia fan right now.
October 31, 2009 at 4:09 am by Sean Patrick Bowley
After a tense first-half, it appears nothing has changed since Ansonia and Derby last clashed on a football field.
Ansonia and, more to the point, Montrell Dobbs and his offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage, erased an early deficit and won the first meeting of these border rivals since 2003 convincingly — pretty much the way most Ansonia teams dominated the last few years of the rivalry.
A couple thousand showed up to Lou DeFilippo Field and watched Dobbs run for 193 yards on 32 carries and score four touchdowns. Derby led early on D’Ron Conyers‘ 11-yard touchdown run and, later, tied the game with an electric return by Jake Tomczack.
But Ansonia took a 21-14 lead a few minutes later and, just when it seemed as if the Red Raiders would get the equalizer just before halftime, Ansonia’s defense stiffened and then Dobbs went untouched to block Luis Casco’s late field goal attempt to keep the Chargers in front by seven at the break.
From there, it was all Ansonia. The Chargers tacked on a field goal to begin the third quarter and then pulled away with two more scores from Dobbs and a late 53-yard run by Bobby Kinnebrew.
Afterward, the players, who beat the stuffing out of each other for four quarters tonight, suddenly became friends again as they went through their postgame handshakes, which is what this rivalry is all about. Friendly neighbors off the field, fierce rivals on it while their parents and townspeople screamed at each other in the stands. These two programs aren’t at their height right now, but still, this was a great night for Valley Football.
But now everybody will go their separate ways until next year’s big game (hopefully one that’s at least a bit closer). Ansonia wins big and keeps its slim playoff hopes alive, Derby/O’Brien Tech, which is right at home here in the NVL by the way, drops to 3-4 with its third-straight loss.
Watch all of the big plays from the game here as we wind down what has so far been relatively tame Week 7:
October 30, 2009 at 2:55 pm by Sean Patrick Bowley
Welcome back to our weekly live high school football scoring updates feature. If you can’t get to the game, but want to follow everything that’s happening across the Connecticut High School Football world live, just click the window below.
We will be covering as many games as possible with our staff. Here are some of them: Ansonia at Derby; Westhill at Greenwich; Staples at Ludlowe. Since it’s playoff time in soccer, we won’t have staff at as many games as usual. This is where we need your help.
If you’re going to a game, and want to join in our live scoring updates, use a Twitter account and send your updates through your mobile phone. Remember, you must put #ctfb at the end of your tweets for it to show up.
With everybody using #ctfb, you can get updates from your phone, as well by searching #ctfb on Twitter.
Here’s the Friday night radio schedule, if you want, you can listen along (especially ESPNRadio1300, which attempts to get as many scores as possible), and help us by posting the scores they give there:
October 30, 2009 at 2:29 pm by Sean Patrick Bowley
From the moment the Naugatuck Valley League finally said, ‘We do,’ and approved the marriage with its long lost step child, the anticipation for this moment has been palpable. You could just taste the impending venom and bile on your tongue.
Every resident from Pulaski Highway, to Main Street, across the Naugatuck River, to Pershing Drive and up to Wakelee Avenue who bleeds Ansonia blue have been wringing their hands for this day. Every longtime resident from Sodom Lane, Sentinel Hill Road, across Derby Ave., Water St. and Elizabeth St. and up to Hawthorne Ave, who wished aloud that true football Fridays would return to their small city, are being stirred from a long slumber.
Forget those unmemorable and disinterested games against far off and uninspiring football towns like Guilford, North Haven, Wallingford and, yeah, maybe even Milford. Forget the new games against far off and uninspiring football towns like Waterbury, Torrington, Watertown and Wolcott.
For the first time in six years, Division Street is once again a Connecticut landmark. It has once again become The Battle Front.
For the first time in six years, we reopen the storybook.
For the first time in six years, Ansonia will play Derby in football.
Just six years?
Feels like a lifetime.
And, perhaps, in some ways it really is. Times have changed so much since the last time these century-old rivals met on a football field. Maybe not Ansonia so much. The Chargers, after all, have won plenty of games and state championships since the these two last met.
Derby? Well, there has been a sense that the demographics and flavor of the town have changed dramatically over the last decade, maybe more. The old neighborhoods aren’t thriving with generations as they once were.
The small school’s football team, which hasn’t had a winning season since 1996, has been weighed down — even smothered within an inch of its life — by its bad marriage to that megaconference of alien schools for the last 15 years. It co-oped with O’Brien Tech in hopes of replenishing dwindling numbers, yet still couldn’t find its way.
But the prodigal NVL, which virtually terminated the rivalry when it added Woodland to the mix six years ago and had consistently rebuffed efforts to include this proud Valley town, finally came to its senses and accepted it into its family.
You can feel it now.
Derby is beginning to win football games again and, no surprise, it finally feels like football season here again.
Ansonia is crossing Division Street to do battle. It’s time to gear up and go to war.
Understood, we are a ways off before this game — which used to draw upwards of 5,000 – 10,000 people in the later years (and many more before that) — will again inspire the revered tones of its alumni. But you have to start somewhere and, with enough effort and time, it will begin to script its own lore. That’s the hope, at least. Times change, towns change and people change. Derby-Ansonia will never be what it was.
But at least it finally is again.
…Full disclosure here:
I’ve never seen a Derby-Ansonia football game. Not once.
I grew up just a mile or so from the Ansonia border in Woodbridge. As far as football goes, I might as well have grown up in Alaska.
As it stands now, I can count the big games I’ve attended at DeFillippo Field on two fingers.
One was the Shelton-Derby Silver Turkey Bowl in 1999 when I was a pup reporter for the New Haven Register. I remember being in awe of the the atmosphere at this beautiful field.
The other DeFillippo game also included Shelton, but not Derby. It was the Shelton vs. West Haven in 2003. In fact, I”ve seen, maybe, five Derby football games in my time — all while covering the SCC for Elm City Newspapers. I can’t recall covering a Derby game since coming to the Connecticut Post in 2004 — incidentally, the first year we didn’t get Derby-Ansonia.
So this is going to be a treat for me, as it probably will for many fellow writers and fans, not to mention many of the the players and their families, who have never seen this close encounter.
True Valley football games — and I’m talking about your Seymours, Naugatucks, Ansonias — can be a treat if the conditions are right. But, lately, the big time True Valley games have been so rare, they’ve felt more like exhibits in a museum. I’m hoping that this revival can rekindle that certified True Valley feel.
Because, honestly, there’s nothing like vintage valley football.
October 28, 2009 at 1:34 pm by Sean Patrick Bowley
Staples QB Brandon Pacilio
Staples quarterback Brandon Pacilio will have surgery on his broken ankle this week, officially ending his high school football career, coach Marce Petroccio confirmed Wednesday night.
Pacilio broke the ankle in the second quarter of Staples’ 40-0 victory over Harding at Hedges Stadium. Initially, Petroccio said there was an outside chance the injury wasn’t severe and the senior could return. But after being re-evaluated, it was decided to have the surgery. “It’s a shame,” Petroccio said. “Everybody’s pretty broken up about it.”
Pacilio had passed for 571 yards and 6 touchdowns and no interceptions this year. He’s also run for 218 yards and six touchdowns.
Nobody likes to see this happen. We all wish Pacilio well. But now the 6-0, third-ranked Wreckers are Keith Gelman’s show to run. “He’s played a lot of varsity, but he’s never been the man,” Petroccio said. “I told him it’s easy to run the show when it’s 40-0. Now now you have to do it at 0-0. It’s a whole different ballgame.”
Staples plays Ludlowe on Friday night. We’ll have more later in the week.
October 28, 2009 at 1:58 am by Sean Patrick Bowley
While you were all busy voting on our players of the week on the main site (what? you haven’t done it? Well get busy: http://connpost.com/highschoolfootball) I finally got a chance to cut together highlights from Saturday’s big performance from — yes, I’ll say it — the state’s No. 1 football team.
New Canaan and quarterback Turner Baty sliced and diced St. Joseph, 35-25, on a soggy day at Dunning Stadium. Baty, the California transplant, threw for over 300 yards for the second consecutive week as the starter. He hit seven different receivers, three for touchdowns. No matter what St. Joseph threw at them, the Rams stayed poised. They had an answer for everything.
Fourth and long? No problem. Penalty backed them up to the 9-yard line? Zip, zip, zip right back down the field for a score. Cody Newton caught six balls for 160 yards. Kevin Macari caught a bunch of passes, too — including a 43-yard touchdown — with a cast on his hand.
While the New Canaan defense had its hands full with big fullback Tyler Matakevich, its defense were able to largely contain QB Joe Della Vecchia and his receiving corps enough to where Matakevich’s big gains were the only real offense of the afternoon. New Canaan returned an early fumble for a score and, in the second half, picked off a pair of passes, which turned into quick strikes from Baty and a 35-12 lead after three quarters.
The Cadets appeared to get burned by a couple non-calls. One was what one reporter called an obvious fumble in the second quarter (impossible to tell in this video), and the other was a called incomplete pass that most on the sidelines believed should have been ruled intentional grounding. I look at it again and it’s clearly a fumble.
While New Canaan quickly took advantage of their good karma with touchdowns. St. Joseph couldn’t create its own fortune on this afternoon. New Canaan showed it’s a worthy No. 1 pick right now. They travel to Greenwich in two weeks, then Central before the FCIAC championship game.
Quick mea culpa here: I had a tough time getting to New Canaan from New Haven in time for kickoff. I took too much time leaving home and the rain turned the Merritt Parkway into a messin spots. I missed most of the first quarter scoring. Because of camera issues and the buckets of water that soaked my bones, I also missed half of St. Joseph’s brief fourth-quarter comeback attempt — particularly Pat Mulligan’s awesome 60-yard fumble recovery return for a touchdown.
Also included is the climax of the touching Pete Demmerle jersey retirement ceremony at halftime. Demmerle, an all-state player at New Canaan and later an All-American at Notre Dame, died in 2007 at age 53 from an awful, awful disease called ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The memory of his great days at New Canaan, and the rest of his life are ensured to live forever.
After a tense first-half, it appears nothing has changed since Ansonia and Derby last clashed on a football field.
While you were all busy voting on our players of the week on the main site (what? you haven’t done it? Well get busy: 
