Update:
Mystery solved. The ball wasn’t in the arm Kyle McKinnon extended toward the pylon. It was in his left arm, as described by New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli to Dave Ruden in this blogpost. plus the Day of New London’s photo (at right).
I should have read Dave’s post more closely.
Still, very close. But clearly not good.
Still worth a watch below.
Original Post:
The Day’s of New London’s Peter Huoppi had a great video report on the New Canaan-New London game, including a clip of the thrilling conclusion, Dylan Leeming’s stop of Kyle McKinnon’s 2-point conversion run at the end of the game.
I think rewound and froze the clip a 100 times this past hour and… I don’t know. That looked awful close.
The clip is shot from across the field, in pouring rain. Plus the frame rate, while good, isn’t nearly as high to exactly pinpoint when McKinnon stretched his arm toward the pylon.
The saving grace — for high school, at least — is that the side judge is looking at it the whole way. He’s right on top of the play. He made the call and stuck with it.
But… man, oh man, oh man, that was close. That was so close, and this is high school, you almost have to give it to them there, no?
Gutwrenching play.
I feel for New London and its 18 seniors. It was decided by nanometers. It was that kind of game.
Awesome effort by that kid. He definitely hit the pylon but it’s hard to tell if his knee hit the ground before the ball touched the pylon. Tough call.
The 2 pt conversion looked good to me…..
I played it and stopped it over and over and over, and it always appeared clear to me his knees were down when the ball was still just short of the goal line. But not very much short.
Now that I take more looks, understanding the ball was against his chest in his left arm, I can see why I was having trouble understanding where the ball was. He was not in. Close as you can get. But not in. It is amazing that the ref could make that call, but it was made instantly. Not one of those “let me think about what I just saw”.
BTW, I think the still picture is not of the same play. Not enough rain and other guys in the picture, plus the yellow curved line is in the middle of the field.
The ref had a great look and McKinnon wasn’t in. Good call.
Ball never crossed or hit pylon, ball in left arm = out….IF it had been in right arm (which it was not) = good….he is a heck of a RB….anyone know where he is looking or going next year?
Good Call – can’t tell, inconclusive evidence, call on the field stands. I personally think he did not get it.
But what makes the decision not as controversial is the fact the ref was right there – no hesitation.
Does anyone know when the last time New London lost at home?
Stop the clip at 3:04 with the pause button and its pretty clear…..except the ref didn’t have the advantage of that button.
I thought New London’s coach and the Field’s kid who spoke in the clip were remarkable poised and well spoken in the aftermath of a draining game and a defeat measured in inches. Obviously an extremely good young coach with a lot to look forward to. Fields didn’t say a lot in the clip, but he had an eloquence in the way he said things. Look for something big from that young man in the future.
Thankyou CIAC My Saturday is all set. First i travel to East Haven to watch what I consider the most competitive game of the day. WINDSOR vs NEW CANAAN. Then off to West Haven to watch Masuk vs, Hand. This game has all the makings of a great game but Masuk wins by 3 tds. Would love to see Hand vs. New Canaan in the finals but its not going to happen.
Nice to see that Cocheran and Milano are human afterall. Both played the worst games of their careers and yet their teams still won.
NOte to Ridgefield. When Staples third string running back gets close to 350 yards running against your team it time to regroup your priorities for next year.
Yeah, Sean, the picture above is from earlier in the game (different articles have different captions, but I think the Day’s caption says it’s from the first quarter).
Video’s pretty definitive, though – the hand that hit the pylon was not the hand that had the ball. Still, a thrilling end to a fantastic high school football game. And give NL this: there were a number of opportunities for them to fold in the first half. They didn’t. They made crucial third and fourth down stops, scored when they needed to and survived a big imbalance in special teams abilities. Had McKinnon gotten that extra inch, it would have been a well-earned victory. Even as a NC fan, it was a shame to see the Whalers lose.
@James – Oh really? Our caption of their photo said otherwise. Good catch.
But he did have it in his left arm.
This has been just a nutty post.
Don’t forget that New Canaan had to travel 2 hours up I-95, bus breaks down (flat tire apparently). Plenty of adversity on both sides in this one.
Still – This is a much more impressive win for New Canaan, a “passing team” rushing the ball for close to 350 yards against a very stout New London Defense that hadn’t given up more than 14 points at home all year.
But this brings up a questions. Greenwich gets killed by whatever the score was 50 something to 30 something – back up qb i know i know, but still scored 35 points on that very good gwich D.
Staples beats greenwich in the FCIAC – and New Canaan beats New London, on the road… Would a better FCIAC Game been between NC and Staples? I don’t know, a lot of variables but I would have loved to see it.
Here’s the original:
http://www.theday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=NL&Date=20111129&Category=MEDIA02&ArtNo=112909992&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=3&Profile=1069#galtop
Btw, fantastic coverage this season – and this is the cherry. How many high school football blogs would go into this level of depth? All of those eulogizing newspapers in the Internet age clearly have not paid attention to the way it’s revolutionized LOCAL news coverage (for those staffs that have been willing to “make the jump,” at least.) Any idea on what % of CT Post traffic goes to this blog during the football season?
@James -
To give you an idea how much, Tuesday night we had 10,300. which was a pleasant surprise. 9,300 was Thanksgiving.
We are accepting advertisers. Call the Hearst CMG home offices for rates.
And yes, I’m constantly clicking on the website links. #tradesecret
New Canaan and Windsor, I don’t know why NDWH gave up so many yards to Windsor, was it the weather’s effect on the play calling or whatever it was , New Canaan and coach Lou are going to have their hands full. NDWH did not give that many yards in some time, Windsor is not the long shot many think they are.
Masuk and Hand , make no mistake I have been saying that the Panthers are the #1 team in the state all year. I stand to be corrected, I do have a bit of a bias opinion on the Panthers because I make all of their games with family ties involved in my emotions. I have done some homework as of late and after watching the game with North Haven , have come away with the opinion that their play calling and coaching as of late is not the reason this team wins. It’s the talents of their key players and the heart of a championship caliber team. That’s what won the game Tuesday nite , the will to win !
The #1 X-Men and the NWLK Bears, this game has the makings to be a classic defense driven smashmouth standoff. The X-Men have the better offensive line and most likely better overall arsenal of scoring weapons. The Bears are winning on their strong pass rush and ball control time management . The X-Men are the #1 team in our state and are ranked in the top 300 teams nationally. It’s nice to see that NWLK has made to this level, but they have a very steep mountain to climb to reach cloud LL , the X-Men will be on top of that mountain waiting and willing with many bear traps along the way .
Seems like they had much better weather for the majority of the game than the rest of the games on this end of the state had. The only bad part about great football games is that someone has to lose. Congrats to New Canaan!
I wonder how Brett Farve would do vs. any of these teams?
R-MAC please elaborate on your conjecture that the Masuk coaching ‘as of late’ is not why this team wins Has something changed?
Kyle McKinnon had his first offer 2 weeks ago looks like he will be going to AKRON
Sean (or anyone else),
Your thoughts on the matchup up front between Xavier and Norwalk. Haven’t seen either play this year – will X be able to push them around up front like they have most everyone else in the state over the last two years? Bears have some real size with their front 7.
Shooter – easy on Ridgefield – Staples O-Line is that good…
R-MAC #15, Masuk jumped on the shoulders of Colin Markus and he carried them the rest of the way. In my opinion, he is the most complete back (rushing, receiving, and especially blocking) in the state of CT. The protection that he offers Casey is invaluable. Seldom do you see a successful blitz because 32 is picking off the inbound defender.
One other thing that gets overlooked is the downfield blocking of Cusmano and Milone. Never shows up in the stats but you see it week in and week out.
http://blog.ctnews.com/hssports/2011/09/06/reel-time-newtown-seymour-masuk-greenwich-game-scrimmages/
The above link takes you to clips of the Newtown vs Seymour scrimmage. Tell me again how much better the NVL is than the SWC???
I feel like Norwalk might hang Saturday. From what i read they have a stout secondary and defense over all. They have played some good competition already this year so you never know……….
I can’t believe its December 1st and someone just posted a link to a scrimmage. Is this Bizarro World??
@ Jesse
If by “hang” you mean “from the gallows”, yeah, I agree with you.
@go getter
really? at 9:48am this is really what you want to discuss. league strength based on a scrimmage that took place 3 months ago. you really should change your name to “go getter life”
its stuff like this that takes away from legitimate discussion on a great blog. i truly and deeply want to round house kick you to the back of the face right now. but alas i am a gentleman. so i watched your video. yes newtown is better then a team that one 0 games the year before this (you know when they had played the scrimmage). its kind of like having Ansonia play Bassick and then saying which is the better league? who cares. the top teams from any league can usually hang with anyone from any league. that is why playoffs are so fun. sure we would all like to see some of the heavy hitters play in season, but then the odds are we wouldnt see them play eachother now in the playoffs. i have been waiting for hand v. masuk or masuk v. new canaan or new canaan v. hand all year. and odds are i get to see it now. so who cares about whats leagues are more dominant.
i am pulling for norwalk big time jesse, but they are going to get beat by at least 4 tds. its not going to even be close. i hope im wrong because i think sean ireland is a great guy and a great coach, but not happening.
Not sure more than a handful of teams can stay with Xavier.Unfortunately Norwalk is not one of them.
Glass House> Something has changed with Masuk as of late it showed in the 1st qt of the Newtown game and again with North Haven. The Panthers have been so reliant on Casey to make the big plays and pass the ball they shy away from going smashmouth and run the clock down with the consistency to run the ball and keep running the ball when its working so well. Their defensive line has many key offensive players in on the action that can be very tiring in the long run. Masuk has more than enough players on the sideline that can step it up without having your key offensive playmakers on both sides of the ball !
#23 last time i checked. newtown is in the state semis, and seymour is home, season over. live with it, NO ONE cares about the scrimmages. Its how you finish the season
whats changed is that masuk is now playing teams that can actually play.
#15> Well stated, Casey has not been touched thanks to the key players like Colin, Thomas, and others who know how to read the blitz and prevent the sack. This team this year has made the big plays happen when they need to.
Right Ray, they are finally being tested in the playoffs with SCC and FCIAC teams that are more challenging than what the SWC has to offer.
The last time I saw the #1 X-Men lose was in wilton vs Staples , I am with the X-Men taking the class LL this year but not if Staples has their way ! They are looking like Championship Caliber Competition !
R-MAC,
What does Milone and Markus ‘knowing how to read the blitz’ have to do with preventing a sack? Murphy is the one who calls the play. Casey is the one who checks the play and the offensive line is the one who picks up the blitz.
X will beat Norwalk and Staples by 35 pts mark it down!
OK #23 you asked and you shall recieve….8-1
Glass House,There are times when Colin is in the backfield and picks up on the blitz and gives Casey the time needed for play action as has Milone also done at times. Comment #22 explains this also. Maybe if you leave that Glasshouse of yours and come watch a few Masuk games,you will see it for yourself. Its okay we wont throw any rocks at ya, just TOUCHDOWNS !
will beat Norwalk and Staples by 35 pts mark it down!
Comment by HillhouseFan — December 1st, 2011 @ 3:32 pm
I guess the score will be 70 -35 because I don’t beleive they have the acumen to shut down a diverse offense. No offense to the great offensive minds of the scc. However I’ll be the first to say….norwalk will be challened to get a first down.
Xavier won’t beat Norwalk by 35. This will be a physical, defensive game. Xavier may win by 2 TDs but the pads will be cracking to get there.