St. Joseph's Mufasha Abdul Basir busts loose during St. Joseph's 35-28 2OT win over Darien on Saturday.
They call him the ‘Lion King,’ an endearing reference to his name, “Mufasha,” and the namesake of the titular character from the popular Disney franchise.
Like his namesake, Mufasha Abdul Basir grew up before our eyes Saturday at Darien High School. Called upon to make the biggest play of the young season, Abdul Basir, his legs pumping, his shoulders churning, squeezed through the Darien defensive front and fell — just barely — over the goal line to write himself into St. Joseph’s 2012 season highlight reel and lift the Hogs into contender status.
Of course, St. Joseph’s defense had to do some work to secure the exhilarating 35-28 victory. But it was Mufasha’s hard yards in double overtime, necessary after St. Joseph had shanked what would have been the winning chip-shot field goal in OT 1, that secured St. Joseph’s contender status.
“If you don’t want to play this game, you can’t play this game,” he said. “This is a hard-hitting game and you have to want to be great to play this game. And our team wanted to be great, I wanted to be great. I came in with a mindset that I wasn’t going to go down, no matter what. I’m going to keep my feet moving and whoever dares run toward me, I gotta go get it.”
His clutch, 1-yard plunge was reminiscent of the team’s last great running back, Tyler Matakevich, who helped St. Joseph win back-to-back state championships only two years ago. (Aside: Matakevich probably would have leaped over the pile, though).
With a week off from Temple, Matakevich was on the sidelines to watch his former teammates earn their biggest win since he played in the 2010 Class S championship over Ansonia. Mufasha was just an eight-grader then, but the presence of his idol had an effect.
“He’s a great guy and a great inspiration,” Abdul Basir said. “He works hella hard. I kinda wanted to win for him.”
Darien #35 Tommy DiMauro draws the defense as Darien High School hosts St. Joseph High School in varsity football in Darien, CT on Sept. 29, 2012. Photo: Shelley Cryan
The Blue Wave fell to 2-1 and coach Rob Trifone lamented his team playing without star back Peter Gesualdi for the second time and attributed its ineffectiveness during St. Joseph’s comeback to the limited availability of standout lineman Matt D’Andrea. “Put simply, it killed us,” he said. “He’s the best offensive and defensive player we have and when he got tired, it made it difficult.”
But he took some positives out of the close loss.
“…Playing the way we did without Peter Gesualdi, who will be back next week, shows we can play with anybody,” Trifone said.
And so St. Joseph-Darien lived up to its billing. It added St. Joseph, which went 4-6 a year ago, to a crowded house of early FCIAC contenders alongside Darien, Greenwich (2-0) Trinity Catholic (3-0), New Canaan (2-1), Ridgefield (2-1), Stamford (2-1), Westhill (2-1), Wilton (2-1) and Danbury (1-1, 2-1 overall). Staples (3-0) remains the hunted team. And, based on Week 4′s schedule, it doesn’t seem as if there will be much change as we head into midseason.
Same goes for the SWC, which saw little change from last week’s surprises. Barlow, Oxford, Masuk and Newtown won big. Brookfield beat New Milford to set up its grudge match with Newtown on Friday. Masuk at Bunnell is another game to watch.
In the SCC, Fairfield Prep earned some stripes by hanging tough with No. 1 Xavier despite allowing D’Angelo Berry to score two touchdowns on his first two touches of the day. It had the earmarks of a blowout, but Fairfield Prep kept the margin within two touchdowns until the fourth quarter.
“Maybe we had stars in our eyes,” coach Tom Shea said. “But we have to learn that games are 48 minutes long, not 46, unfortunately.”
Though they eventually lost 35-14, Fairfield Prep suddenly doesn’t look like it will be a pushover against some of the other squads on its schedule. The Jesuits don’t play Hand, get West Haven late. Hmm…
Shelton beat back a strong challenge from David Attolino and Amity to earn a critical 34-28 victory.
One of the league’s most surprising results from Friday was West Haven’s 34-13 victory over Notre Dame-West Haven. The score wasn’t surprising, but ND back Cameran Tucker’s performance was downright shocking. He blasted off for 323 yards and Notre Dame only scored 13 points. However it happened, Notre Dame is 1-2 and West Haven is 3-0.
And, finally, in the NVL, the only result of note was Torrington’s big, 24-21 upset victory over Holy Cross. The Crusaders will not be 3-0 heading into Friday’s game vs. Ansonia. Has the luster faded on the last great NVL hope?
EXTRA POINTS: Congratulations to Trumbull coach Bob Maffei for getting win No. 100 in Trumbull’s 35-7 win over Ludlowe. The Eagles snapped a 9-game losing streak dating back a week before program patriarch Jerry McDougall died. …Central quarterback Xavier Hardison suffered a concussion and was carted off the field during his team’s wild, 36-30, loss to Danbury. He was up and about Tweeting on Sunday morning that he was OK. His return to the field is doubtful for next week vs. Westhill.
Saturday’s Regional Roundup
- FCIAC: New Canaan 35, Fairfield Warde 6 | Wilton 31, Bassick 8 | St. Joseph 35, Darien 28 (2OT) | Danbury 36, Central 30 | Trumbull 35, Fairfield Ludlowe 7 | Trinity Catholic 34, Harding 0 | Westhill 13, Norwalk 0
- NVL: Wolcott 47, Crosby 26 | Torrington 24, Holy Cross 21 | Naugatuck 70, St. Paul Catholic 33 | Seymour 42, Kennedy 14
- SCC: Shelton 34, Amity 28 | Xavier 35, Fairfield Prep 14 | Hamden 30, Jonathan Law 6
- SWC: Newtown 43, Stratford 14 | Barlow 55, Notre Dame-Fairfield 12 | Brookfield 24, New Milford 0 | Masuk 53, Immaculate 8 | Oxford 40, Bethel 26
- CSC: Cheney Tech 36, Wilcox Tech 19 | Bullard Havens Tech 46, Abbott Tech 12 | Capital Prep 42, Wolcott Tech 7 | Platt Tech 21, Putnam/Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech 19
ALSO: Ned Griffen of The Day has your Weekend ‘Polecat’ roundup for statewide news.
Westhill is 2-1, they lost to Trinity in week 1
@SPB is the kid Berry Forreal ?
Gesualdi is a great kid, but enough of his impact. This loss was purely on the Coaches
How about them Bobcats! Brookfield v Newtown will be biggest game in SWC this year. Having seen both teams play New Milford, gotta give edge to Brookfield..we moved the ball much better against New Milfords defense than Newtown did, and Brookfield Defense was all over the place..smothering comes to mind! Someone can look at the tape/stats to confirm, but I bet we kept NM to under 100yds of offense, pounded that QB on almost every play, and gave them nothing.
Hey BigMac, where is the shutout you promised? You called it for the wrong team! Some advice for you, make sure your team has some semblance of a running game before you pop off. Your offense is so predictable its not funny. Maybe you had 5 yds rushing, but I doubt it…our line dominated yours..NM totally out-played and out-coached! WE will beat Newtown easy if we play with that same intensity next week! And this new QB, Westmark, is something else…study hard Newtown!
yes the last 2 games have been good for brookfield and im happy to see them prove so many wrong but slow down with the beating newtown easy. newtown has almost as much to lose just as brookfield has to gain. the stage is set for a great game and another chapter to the brook newtown rivalry for the 90′s and early 2000s. good luck cats, you may need some you may not
The lion king is a beast. St.Joes may not lose the rest of the way.
I will be shocked if the LL final is not Staples vs Xavier and there are good teams in LL.
The SWC final will be Newtown vs Masuk on Thanksgiving eve again. Masuk will prevail again. This team has plenty of players left including a top 5 back in the state in Milone. Just watch and I am not a panther fan.
@whopper16 If I’m correct, Brookfield beat Stratford by 5…Newtown dominated that game start to finish.Sure it was week 1, but so was Newtown’s game against New Milford. Friday will be interesting and will tell us a lot about both teams. I give the edge to Newtown, just to many weapons for Brookfield to stop. Will be a great game though.
brookfield was supposed to beat newtown last year. 41-0 newtown and that was at brookfield. the game is at newtown this year. hard place to play. just let the kids play whopper, and quit talking trash
Whopper, Newtown also held NM to around 100 yards of offense and they dominated a team you struggled to beat. Newtown’s defense is relentless and and they have tons of weapons. Newtown by 2-3 TD’s.
Call me crazy,but after week 3 the jury is still out on a bunch of teams,especially in the fciac.St joes,Westhill & Trinity could all get knocked off this weekend.Alot of parity this season.
Berry from Xavier? the kid is a flat out stud, he was just behind Mastroanni the past two years, a testament to the talent at X that both him and their D1 qb were not full time starters last year!
You can’t take whopper to seriously, remember, he was alo the same guy who said that the Brown kid was a sure fire div1-A QB and now he is moved to WR with no shot to play QB at all.
On a sidenote I went to the Cheshire Academy game to watch my friends son, man are they good. They are huge upfront and very athletic. The QB from the Gunnery was very impressive in a loss too. Would love to see a CA game vs Xavier and see what happens
NC is back
Trinity RB is the best in FCIAC
@Whopper16…
Brookfield played very well, no doubt, not taking anything away from them, but that was about as poorly as I have seen NM play this year. Flat and out of sync. No energy, no running game, hurried passes, defense on field too long, got worn down….NM has some things to work on. Too much emphasis on pass, need to get ground game going or it could be long season. Can’t expect that QB to stay healthy long if they keep doing what they are doing. QB did take a beating, you’re right, and he stayed in, though maybe he would have been better off sitting cause it looked like he couldn’t run. Very disapointing game all around for Wave. Was surprised at size of Brookfield o-line though, huge, gave their QB all day to throw and he is very accurate when he does. He throws a good ball. Congrats to Brookfield on a very solid win.
Having seen Newtown and Brookfield up here, I do think Newtown has the edge..both are very good, well-coached, solid teams,but I think Newtown has the more explosive players. Should be a very good game though, I am thinking 28-20 Newtown.
Congratulations to the Cadets – that is an impressive win over a very strong Darien team. St Joes should continue to improve all season, with a ton of up-size with Basir now in the mix. If the defense stays healthy and makes similar improvements as the offense, SJ should make the M playoffs and have a decent shot at the title game maybe against Berlin. That would be a fantastic matchup.
And Weston, unbelievable … Hasset is such a great kid and leader. Very well deserved win from a total team effort, and all without the Roger brothers. Very impressive, kind of like David over Goliath.
Really? Westhill and Danbury are contenders? And New Canaan is not. New Canaan might be rebuilding but they lost in OT to TC. Westhill beat Norwalk and Trumbull(both in down years), Danbury LOST to Norwalk. Staples is the class of the FCIAC by far this year. They shouldn’t lose until the play Xavier. Too big, too fast, too disciplined. McMahon speed game was irrelevant on Friday night.
@Cal – right right right. I knew I forgot someone. They were in there in thay paragraph’s first draft. Save the bile.
The clear leader by far is Staples: even more explosive than last year and with a better defense. Greenwich looks to have improved a bit, but (yawn) “we won’t really know until Thanksgiving.” All eyes now turn to Trinity to see if they can run the table and outpoint Greenwich. The good news is that Trinity avoids Staples/Greenwich/Ridgefield; the bad news is that they still have Darien/St. Joe looming, each likely a pick ‘em, game. St. Joe is going to have to beat Trinity to remain in the state playoff hunt, so circle that game now.
This year it appears a bunch of FCIAC teams could finish with one loss. Given the match-ups remaining for the undefeated teams in the state, for sure a one-loss team will make each Class’ playoffs. By my count, that’s 6-7 FCIAC teams with a good chance at qualifying (Staples, Greenwich, Ridgefield for LL, NC or Darien for L but not both, Trinity for M, and St. Joes for S). If any Stamford fans are still optimistic, I’d love to hear why.
In ND vs West Haven, ND was killed by penalties. It should have been a very close game. ND lost their QB in first half versus Xavier and have a freshman in under center. They went to Tucker in the WILDCAT for most of the second half. The kid made one hell of an effort.
Too post above.Good teams dont get penalties. If ND could tackle they would of had chance.
For Brookfield to win they need to get the run going behind those two monster tackles, along with some conservative passes. The run is what got them going in the second half against Stratford. I would not go pass happy with their still green QB against Newtown’s playmaking secondary.
Honus:
I think St Joe’s is a M.
Honus:
More clarification: You mixed up st Joes (a M class) with Trinity Catholic (a S class). Thanks!