Is losing by more than 50 points embarrassing and demoralizing to a football team if the stronger opponent benches its starters midway through the second quarter? Or is it more embarrassing to take a knee on four consecutive plays to keep from breaking a rule that’s intended to keep the lesser team from being embarrassed?
Well Greenwich last night had to take a knee on four consecutive plays to comply with the CIAC’s score management rule. And that happened in the third quarter last night against Westhill. And the Vikings cut the Greenwich lead to 45-7 by scoring on the ensuing drive.
The rule was put in because former Bloomfield and New London coach Jack Cochran thought it was necessary to run up 80 point leads on weaker opponents while his second stringers never saw the light of day. Last season in a mockery of the rule, he ordered his punter to run through the end zone for a safety – a 50-yard loss on the play – to keep a lead under the rule that was set out to stop him.
Cochran is gone now. He’s a football dad at Masuk. I’m sure the CIAC is keeping this rule in place just in case some school is crazy enough to take a chance on Cochran, who is a great coach but known to wear out his welcome wherever he goes.
But these high school coaches wear big-boy pants. They can police themselves. They’ve proven they can put sportsmanship into play and put the reserves in when it gets out of hand. And in some cases, they’ve seen teams start to mount comebacks just when they think they can start putting in the reserves.
I remember a game a few seasons back at Kennedy Stadium, Tony Catapano’s first season in charge at Warde. The Mustangs saw a 35-or-so point lead over Bassick evaporate in the second half. If it wasn’t for the official in the booth running a few seconds off the clock here and there to just get the game over with, Bassick may have won on its final drive, which ended when time ran out.
What do you think? Is the 50-point rule getting out of hand?
