Masuk coach John Murphy confirmed Monday he will not be suspended for violating the CIAC’s ‘score management policy’ in Friday night’s 56-0 victory over Stratford.
Coaches are put under review by a committee, pending reports from game officials and the two opposing coaches, when a team defeats an opponent by more than 50 points.
Murphy said he pulled starters with approximately 3 minutes remaining in the first half and ran the ball exclusively in the second half.
From the CIAC:
After a review of reports received from both schools involved and the game officials in regards to Masuk High School’s 56-0 varsity football victory over Stratford High School on Friday, it has been determined that the proper sportsmanship protocols were followed, and that there was no violation of the CIAC Score Management policy by the winning school’s head coach. Due to this fact the review committee will not take any action against Masuk High School in regards to Friday’s game.
Staples James Fruscaiante leaps up to catch a ball for a touchdown in Saturday's 24-21 victory over McMahon. Photo: Christian Abraham / Connecticut Post
They almost pulled it off.
New Canaan's Louis Hagopian muscles through the defense with help from Nick Pelli as New Canaan defeated Fairfield Warde 28-14 Friday night. Photo: Shelley Cryan
Fairfield Warde on Friday night, then McMahon and Hamden on Saturday night almost gave us the shakeup we were looking for.
While chaos rained [sic] upon the region Friday night, everything seemed to tidy up nicely, if not bizarrely, on Saturday.
Watching Derby and Ansonia play their second half at Shelton’s Finn Stadium riled up a few old-timers, I’m sure, but it did nothing to stop Ansonia from burying Derby 55-19. …Fairfield Prep kept its foot on the gas and defeated Wilbur Cross 35-18. …Hillhouse pulled away from Foran 50-26 [this and more from the Saturday Roundup].
Of all the teams forced to suspend play and return to the field Saturday, Hamden was the only one that looked rejuvenated by the day off. Down 24-14, the Dragons rallied to take a 31-24 lead behind quarterback Tim Dube, only to see if disappear quickly thanks to a 66-yard TD pass from Nick Nieves to Tahir Manning with just seconds remaining. Almost, Hamden. Almost.
In the SWC, it was a pretty tame week. We saw Newtown and Pomperaug both won handily and moved to 3-0 heading into Thursday’s mega SWC matchup. Bunnell is 3-0 after rolling Oxford, 55-20, behind a huge day from David Camille.
Casey Cochran broke the state record for touchdowns and Masuk broke score management against Stratford, 56-0. If the information we have is correct, coach John Murphy will not be suspended. Brandon Schmidt helped Bethel win a shootout vs. New Fairfield. The Wildcats are 2-1 along with Weston in the SWC. Brookfield (over Notre Dame-Fairfield), New Milford (over Barlow) also got their first wins of the season.
Darien's Peter Gesualdi sails over St. Joseph's Jon Prutting to score a touchdown during Saturday's game at Dalling Field. Photo: Autumn Driscoll
The Cardinals played, perhaps, the craziest game of Week 3, falling to New London 51-33. Kyle McKinnon torched Greenwich for 236 yards and three touchdowns. New quarterback Rob Key threw for 302 yards three touchdowns. The game also featured three interception return TDs, including (officially) a 99-yarder Greenwich’s Ryan Kelly scored from five yards deep in the opposing end zone.
[You can see highlights from that game here: second half | first half. We'll have a full version later.]
What does it say about New London? What does it say about Greenwich? (over 500 yards of total offense? Bananas.)
Quick notes, provided by Dave Ruden of The Advocate: Trinity RB/DB Shaquan Howsie is done for the year, as is Fairfield Warde WR Kevin Krug. Both suffered knee injuries in week two.
All and all, some interesting results, if not completely shocking. Are there some pretenders among the 3-0 teams. We’ll try to break it down in the coming days.
Peter Gesualdi, Darien — 2 TDs, 2 INT vs St. Joseph
Delshawn Wilson, Norwalk — 14 of 16, 191 yards, 3 TDs passing vs. Westhill
Dan Hebert, Newtown — 85-yard punt return TD, 2 INT vs. Weston
Casey Cochran, Masuk — 185 yards, 2 TDs, became state’s all-time leader in career passing touchdowns (86) vs. Stratford
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“I’ve been a head coach a long time and I’ve never seen a play just not count.” –Barlow coach Rob Tynan, believing officials during a 28-9 loss to New Milford incorrectly moved chains during a play. The ensuing argument lasted approximately 10 minutes.
“You can’t take us lightly anymore.” – Norwalk quarterback Delshawn Wilson.
“The kids were fired up to be home. I saw passion that we didn’t see before.” – Fairfield Prep coach Tom Shea
“It was Ansonia football weather. We wanted to get down and pound the ball. We wanted to get muddy. It was awesome.” – Dylan Vano, Ansonia lineman
“Even when we’re not blocking people, he runs them over. It’s a real nice thunder-and-lightning combination we have with (Fenaroli) and (Dan) Hebert.” – Newtown coach Steve George
“We just wanted it a lot. No one wanted to go home with a loss. It just wasn’t going to happen.” – Jack Massie, Staples QB
“We’ve got to walk out of here with our head held high and realize that we can play with a team like this. I knew we could. The kids knew we could. It hurts.” – A.J. Albano, McMahon coach
TWEET OF THE WEEK
This from @CTFootballLive, otherwise known as Bay on this space, responding to an update from @CurrenSCCat the Xavier-Cheshire game. Cheshire was down 14-0 at the time this came over:
Bunnell at Weston, Thursday, 3:45 p.m. – The honeymoon’s over for Weston as Air Castelot comes to town.
Ridgefield at Wilton, Thursday, 6 — OK, now we get to see what Wilton’s really all about.
Greenwich at Trumbull, Thursday, 6 — The jury remains out on both of these FCIAC contenders. Don’t look now, but this might be Greenwich’s highest hurdle until the FCIAC title game.
Newtown at Pomperaug, Thursday, 7 – Huge matchup in the SWC title race. Lou Fenaroli and the Hawks take on Eric Beatty and the Panthers in a clash of 3-0 teams.
Hand at Cheshire, Thursday, 7 — Hand finally gets to play an opponent of its caliber. Cheshire still licking its wounds from last week’s 42-20 loss to Xavier.
West Haven at Notre Dame-WH, Friday, 7 – Notre Dame’s rounding back into form after its 28-0 victory over Shelton. The Westies were just lucky to survive Hamden.
Holy Cross at Ansonia, Friday, 7 — Possible preview of the NVL title game?
Norwalk at Trinity Catholic, Friday, 7 – The big game before the big game. Can the Bears actually get to 4-0 heading into Week 5′s game vs. New Canaan?
ANSONIA AT DERBY … THE MOVIE!
We’ll leave you with the first-half carnage from Derby’s DeFilippo Field from Friday night. I’ve gotta say the last momest of the first half looked like the opening scene of ‘The Last Boy Scout.’ We didn’t shoot the second half at Shelton (camera troubles… I wonder why), but we got post-game interviews. Enjoy.
Fans at DeFilippo Field in Derby run for cover as a thunderstorm unleashes a deluge of rain late in the first half of Ansonia-Derby. The game, like many others, was postponed and resume tomorrow. Photo by Christian Abraham
The first sign of trouble came well before anyone really kicked off Week 3.
A Tweet, simply, from our pals at the Greenwich Time, all the way at the other end of the state:
It didn’t sound too ominous. Games all across Connecticut kicked off without a second thought.
Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome busts loose for big yardage in Friday's 36-20 postponed game vs. Derby.
But anyone with a smartphone tuned to a weather website (as I did) knew better. A short time later, the carnage made its way across the state like a tidal wave. Reports of thunder, lightning and rain … so much rain. Ominous weather updates in New Canaan (“nasty storm clouds brewing”), then Newtown (“sky is pitch black here”), then Waterbury (“lightning delay at Municipal”) all came across the feed. Then, “stands cleared 5 minutes before biblical storm arrived”). Games were quickly postponed, even the ones that had started.
Meanwhile, in Derby we saw a storm of another kind. Storm Arkeel.
Ansonia’s super sophomore Arkeel Newsome ripped off a 69-yard touchdown run on Ansonia’s first play and then added two more during a deluge of 36 Ansonia points. By the time the rain — buckets of it that cleared the packed stands at DeFilippo Field — finally hit the Valley, Newsome had amassed 200+ yards rushing.
The Chargers and Red Raiders played the last minutes of a 36-12 halftime in a monsoon. The last score was a short TD pass from Ansonia’s Elliott Chudwick to Jake LaRovera (clip at right). I gamely stayed outside to capture footage, and by the time I’d retreated to the press box, I looked like I’d jumped in a pool. The game didn’t last long after that. Postponed, like so many others, to Saturday.
They also finished down in New Canaan, where the Rams scored 21 unanswered in the fourth quarter to rally past Fairfield Warde, 28-14.They finished in Shelton, where Notre Dame scored 21 points in the second half to beat the Gaels 28-0. They finished at Fairfield Ludlowe, where Trumbull routed the Falcons. The rain didn’t get to Middletown, where Xavier moved up and down the field to down Cheshire 42-20 in the “Game of the Year of the Week,” according to Ned of the Day.
Video highlights from Cheshire-Xavier
And, of course, they finished an onslaught at Stratford, where Casey Cochran broke the career TD passing record and Masuk broke ‘score management’ with a 56-0 win over the Red Devils. Masuk’s John Murphy says he did everything he could to keep score down in our Roundup | Friday’s postponements/results.
So this is where we stand on Saturday. Games. Games. And more games on tap today and tonight. So don’t turn that dial.
We’re about to begin Week 3 of the 2011 Connecticut high school football season, but, I’ve gotta be honest with you, it still has that 2010 taste to it.
Don’t get me wrong. 2010 was fun. Plenty exciting. But I’ve already seen that movie. We’ve already lived that day.
Paraphrasing Phil Connors: “Once again the eyes of the nation have turned here to this … TI-ny village in [southwestern Connecticut]… blah blah blah blah blah.”
A couple upstarts aside, New Canaan is still king of the FCIAC, Masuk still rules the SWC, Xavier is still bludgeoning the SCC, Ansonia the NVL.
Both Masuk and Xavier remain embroiled in a never-ending battle of public opinion for the top spot in the polls, which, by the way, haven’t significantly differed much from last year, either.
Pomperaug’s good. Bunnell’s good. Staples is good. Darien is good. Newtown is good. Hand is good. West Haven is good. We’re still wondering about Trumbull. Hillhouse is down, but not out. Greenwich is on the fence, as are a number of others. OK, yeah, St. Joseph isn’t in the picture, then again they were 1-2 around this time last year anyway.
What, pray tell, is really different? I’ll tell you: nothing.
Is this all you have to offer, 2011? 2010 II? Didn’t we do this last year? Have you run out of ideas?
Many of our preseason dark horses have already “been taken to the glue factory,” as Bay so succinctly put it in our comments section. We’re running out of trendy picks. The usual suspects are still standing.
So who’s left?
Weston takes on Newtown tonight in an intriguing SWC matchup that could tip the scales if the Trojans somehow pull it out. …Seymour? The ‘Cats are 2-0, but they haven’t really played anyone yet. TBA. …Norwalk? TBA until they host New Canaan as an undefeated football team. …How about you, Wilton? Looking good so far, but let’s see you take on New Canaan or someone.
What about the boys from Cheshire? They’re gearing up to take on jilted No. 2 Xavier tonight at Palmer Field. Taking out the defending No. 1 team in the state? Yes, that would be the significant switch we’re looking for. (OK, it would be a switch back to 2009, but a switch nonetheless.)
Shelton? The Gaels are 2-0, take on Notre Dame-West Haven. They haven’t been boss in the SCC since at least 2007. Football’s not the same around here without a strong Shelton club. We’ll keep an eye on them. …What about Derby? The Red Raiders had us excited for a spell, but then lost to Naugatuck. They won’t help our cause without beating Ansonia. …New Fairfield? Bethel? That’s a big game up there. Let’s see something. …Oxford? …McMahon? …Ridgefield? …Greenwich? (actually, I’ve gotten used to Greenwich being out of the mix.)
If I wanted 2010, I would just post all of last year’s videos and call it a day.
Somebody. Do something.
And fast, before we actually relive yesterday today.
Our first preview of the week, Jason Sonski takes a trip across Division Street for a preview of Friday night’s border rivalry between Ansonia and Derby. The Chargers, of course, rallied from 26-13 down at halftime to win last year’s clash 33-32 — a game that ended with Arkeel Newsome‘s red zone pick with no time left. (You catch last year’s second half, at right)
The Chargers of 2011 are starting to look like a freight train. What will Ray Kreiger and the Red Raiders bring to the table, especially after losing late to Naugatuck last week? You decide:
In our new feature, run by Kevin Duffy, Pomperaug back/receiver/kicker Matt Paola has been voted SWC player of the week (for all sports) by fans. Congrats to Paola for his strong day in the Panthers’ 45-7 win over Bethel. Duffy also gives his thoughts on who earned his vote.
Ned Griffen of the Day of New London reports that, after some wrangling over playing at a possible neutral site, New London’s football team will be playing at Greenwich’s Cardinal Stadium in this intriguing Week 3 non-conference matchup. As we’ve said before, kudos to New London and Greenwich for making this game happen. Very few state teams (read: none) ever willingly drop Greenwich onto their schedules, which is why we usually see exotic matchups like Greenwich vs. St. Joseph-Montvale (N.J.) or at Naples (Fla.).
New London actually called Greenwich looking to hook up. The matchup should give us a good look at how each of these teams stand in the statewide hierarchy. New London is ranked in most state polls, Greenwich hasn’t been ranked since 2009.
Also coming to you from Ned at the Day, his weekly column ‘The Lonesome Polecat.’ This week, Ned examines Greenwich on the eve of the big game with New London. He also offers his take on this week’s violation of the score management policy: let’s try a running clock, eh?
Says Ned:
Reckon it’s better to have a running clock, though, then a rule that has resulted in headaches, meetings and paperwork.
We completely and utterly, thoroughly, emphatically agree. We’ve said as much before on this space. A running clock in the second half would publicly cure this state of this rule’s PC ills. Get past 35-0 at some point the third quarter, keep that clock a-runnin’ and let’s get everyone out of there. No harm, no foul. No fans, coaches and media screaming about the absurdity of this policy. No forms to fill. No committees. No embarrassment for the players and coaches … on both sides of the ball.
Yes. We need a running clock so this won’t be necessary: The losing coach having to publicly speak about being on the losing side of a blowout and how glad he was his opponents were so merciful, as Weaver coach Robert Quinn did this week.
But… hold on, didn’t Quinn just say he declined a running clock? He did because he’s a football coach trying to make his team better so it won’t lose games by more than 50 points in the future.
Quinn is both honorable and practical. But since these second halves are A) pointless and B) played against JV players anyway, why not leave this to actual junior varsity games. Besides, it may be a running clock, but you still get plenty of snaps.
As much as I respect Quinn’s decision to play on regularly, I’ll take a running clock instead of the laborious 50-point ‘score management policy.’
Finally, we’ll end on a semi-positive note, Bryant Carpenter‘s wonderful piece on the family trials of Sheehan’s Gannon brothers, Billy and Jeremy. It’s both a sad and uplifting story. It’s a must-read.
Short and sweet: The CIAC “Score Management” committee — henceforth referred to here as the ‘Death Panel’ — has ruled that Northwest Catholic coach Michael Tyler will not be suspended for violation the 50-point policy in a 52-0 victory over Weaver on Saturday.
From the CIAC statement:
After a review of reports received from both schools involved and the game officials in regards to Northwest Catholic High School’s 52-0 varsity football victory over Weaver High School on Saturday, it has been determined that the proper sportsmanship protocols were followed, and that there was no violation of the CIAC Score Management policy by the winning school’s head coach.
Due to this fact the review committee will not take any action against Northwest Catholic High School in regards to Saturday’s game.
Recaps, get your game stories and recaps here, plus the live update blog. Lots of games were postponed to today (inexplicably, unless maybe you had grass. It rained, but not nearly enough to be a problem. Especially for you turf schools. C’mon now.) So lots going on.
UPDATE Masuk’s game vs. New Fairfield will be played AT New Fairfield, 7 p.m. The game was originally supposed to be at Masuk. So gas that car up, Masuk fans.
Oh, and here’s the highlight reel from last night’s Ansonia victory over Torrington:
♦♦♦
As for the games, you can watch Xavier-Notre Dame here on Gogreenknights.com.
And you can follow the rest of the games below on the live Twitter feed. Not all of the games may be updated consistently, but you’ll certainly get a final score from the game you want.
Xavier won the top spot in the CSWA Preseason Football Poll by one point over Masuk.
The Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance preseason poll was released Tuesday night and, surprise, surprise: It’s a virtual dead heat for No. 1.
Both Masuk and Xavier received 15 first-place votes each.
The defending Class LL champions, juuuuuust narrowly edged the defending Class L champions for No. 1.
By. One. Point.
(This means one of these fair voters voted Masuk No. 3.)
It should be noted that the CSWA pollsters from last year were the only ones who selected Masuk as No. 1 out of the three state polls issued. Both NHR and Day Coaches had Xavier winning the mythical title last year.
Class L finalist New Canaan chimes in a distant No. 3. Class M champion Hillhouse at No. 4, Class S runner-up Ansonia is at No. 5, Class LL runner-up Trumbull is 6. New London, the Class M runners-up, chimes in at No. 8.
Only St. Joseph, last year’s Class S champion, failed to crack the Top 10. The Cadets — who lost all but two starters — are ranked No. 16.
Voters: Brian Barreto (NVL Blog), Bob Barton (CT H.S. Football Record Book), Bill Bloxsom (Hersam Acorn), Don Boyle (Sporting News CT), Kyle Brennan (Waterbury Republican), Johnny Burnham (Bristol Press), George DeMaio (WELI Radio), Gerry deSimas (Collinsville Publishing Co.), Bill Donovan (WXLM 980 AM), Ted Glanzer (The Granbys Patch), John Goralski (Southington Observer), Dave Greenleaf (CCC website), Mike Guerrera (Southington Citizen), John Holt (WFSB Channel 3), Larry Kelley (Niantic Patch), Bob Lazzari (Valley Times), Greg Lederer (Cheshire Herald), Ken Lipshez (Farmington/W. Hartford Patch), Robert Mayer (Berlin/Plainville/Southington Citizen), Eric Montgomery (Minuteman Newspapers), Sean Patrick Bowley (Connecticut Post), Dave Phillips (Shoreline Newspapers), Mike Pucci (New Haven Register), Paul Rosano (Meriden Record-Journal), Dave Ruden (Stamford Advocate), Mike Suppe (Hersam Acorn Newspapers), Peter Vander Veer (Elm City Newspapers), Tom Yantz (Hartford Courant), Rich Zalusky (Willimantic Chronicle), Jimmy Zanor (Shore Line Times).
Quick thoughts: Cheshire not getting as much love as I’ve given them, but they’re in the top 10. Windsor’s just out of the poll, but they’re a team to watch. We see few crazy entries at the bottom of the “others receiving,” but that’s to be expected in preseason polls, I guess.
Otherwise, on first glance, it looks reasonably good. Really a toss-up for No. 1 in my estimation — and I’ve already seen both teams live.
Brookfield and New Canaan scrimmage in a downpour at Bobcat Field in Brookfield, Sept. 6, 2011
Count us stunned to hear Brookfield’s scrimmage with New Canaan remained a go as biblical rain swept across Fairfield County Tuesday afternoon. Sure we had to pull the galoshes and umbrellas out, but if they were playing, we were going especially since we were eager to catch Brookfield in action before the start of the season.
Turns out Brookfield might have postponed were it not for the Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene postponing all of their practices and scrimmages from last week. This was going to be Brookfield’s first time looking at jerseys of another color. They needed the work. New Canaan agreed.
So here we were, swimming in Brookfield. We saw all kinds of havoc: dropped balls, flubbed snaps, major slippage. It might as well have been a water polo scrimmage. So you’ll have to excuse these two teams looking like the football equivalent of the Washington Generals — especially New Canaan, which drove about an hour or so to get there.
You’ll see much more from Brookfield here than the Rams. The most impressive being fullback Tyler Puglisi (47) who bulled through NC’s front lines all evening. RB Leaon Gordon ran well in spots, including a TD that was called back. The Bobcats’ first-team defense, led by LB Joey Acquanita (5), didn’t allow a New Canaan touchdown, made a few sacks and blocked a long field goal attempt.
Though New Canaan’s defense sacked him several times, including three straight during one series, Brookfield junior QB Boeing Brown threw a pair of TDs to TE David Depoi. One was a happy accident, a ball that tipped off one player and happened to bounce right into the hands of Depoi, who raced all the way for the score. “Hey, hook and ladder, right?” Brown joked to his teammates.
The uninspiring NC performance led New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli to quip: “This make you worry about your preseason rankings?”
Eh… maybe. But it’s only a scrimmage.
Catch all of this and more on our soggy highlight reel.
ON THE AIR
