Three days later, New Canaan High School football coach Lou Marinelli is still trying to come to terms with one of the worst defeats in his nearly three decades at the school.
The 42-7 loss to Bridgeport Central Friday night cost the Rams their No. 1 ranking in the state, their 24-game winning streak and the chance to defend their FCIAC title.
Central will meet Staples in Friday night’s final at Trumbull.
“I thought it was bad the night of the game, but after looking at the film it was worse that I thought,” Marinelli said this morning. “There was not an aspect of the game we weren’t beaten in. It was an ass-kicking. We lost 55-6 to Jack Cochran in a state final, but this was a physical beating. This exposed a lot of things, and nothing seemed to go right.”
Marinelli said he has second-guessed himself for the way he prepared the team for the game.
“I don’t know if we were tired,” he said. “Maybe I overworked them. I did work them very hard. Maybe it was my fault.”
I was at New Canaan shooting a video with Marinelli last Thursday afternoon, and I said to him as crazy as it seemed given what was at stake, I thought there was the possibility his team could have a letdown. It was coming off a dramatic 35-34 win over Greenwich on a two-point conversion in the final minute in a game that had been hyped all that week. Now his players had to face an unfamiliar opponent they had little history with: the last game between Central and New Canaan was five years ago.
“I didn’t think that was going to be the case, but in retrospect there might have been a hangover from (the Greenwich) game,” he said. “Maybe it was. I was getting dressed in the locker room before the game and a lot of the kids hadn’t gone out yet to stretch. They were talking about things that had nothing to do with the game.”
Marinelli said none of this is meant to take anything away from Central, which was magnificent on both sides of the ball.
“They had the game of their lives that night,” Marinelli said. “It will be interesting to see if they can duplicate it Friday night.”
And where do the Rams go from here? They have their annual Turkey Bowl with Darien on Thanksgiving, and then the Class MM Tournament, in which they will be a decided favorite to win their fourth straight state title, assuming they can regroup from Friday night.
“We have given them a few days off and we will come back Wednesday and really find out what they are made of and what this coaching staff is made of,” he said.
Dave, I think the kids needed better footing – perhaps different shoes, there was a lot of slipping and sliding on our part; it was like our kids were playing on ICE. I also would have liked to see more running and short passes. Tom Brady couldn’t complete a long pass under those conditions. Respectfully, Jim Kahmann, Norwalk
Comment by Jim Kahmann — November 16th, 2009 @ 1:33 pm
Excuses. Central played on the same field. Everyone knew it was going to be a wet one and the stadium has old turf. NC got punched in the mouth from the get go and had no answer. The defense looked worse than the offense. The most upsetting thing was that there was no adjustments on either side of the ball by NC the whole game. Central outplayed and OUTCOACHED NC.
Comment by RandyTheRam — November 16th, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
Yes those are excuses, Central did play on the same field. From my eyes NC got beat on both sides of the ball. NC is a spread offense with a small run game, big screen plays, and Turner Baty does a great job getting to his slot/seam receivers. It just so happen that the weather played a factor in their spread offense. With that being said it forced them to run the ball, and just like central did vs Trumbull went away from their offense and paid for it.
Not like the old NC Rams i was use to seeing 02-04 where their offense was a I-formation toss, toss, sweep offense that SMASHED MOUTH FOOTBALL’d Central to death. Thats exactly what central did to NC with attitude…
Comment by K.Gill — November 16th, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
yea pretty much excuses central plays & practices there so i dont wanna here any excuses! new cannan played a team who had more disire & hunger..someone who’s outright better! plan & simple
Comment by KyleK — November 17th, 2009 @ 1:10 am
On this day Central was the better team. If they played again tomorrow maybe New Canaan would be the better team. That’s High School football.
There is a lot of football left to be played .
Comment by jjs — November 17th, 2009 @ 11:53 am
K. Gill has it right Central was very hungry to win and will now face a Staples Team that has played a VERY soft schedule and lets see if Central stays on the ground and can push through the Wreckers like they did to the RAMS for the FCIAC Championship. Goodluck I believe if Central doesnot turn the ball over they will win this game by three touchdowns.
Comment by Mike — November 18th, 2009 @ 5:51 pm