The Road to Boyle

Who is the Fairfield County Player of the Week for Week 8? It’s New Canaan receiver Kevin Macari.

Against Greenwich, Macari had seven catches for 166 yards and touchdowns of 16 and 46 yards. He also caught the game-winning two-point conversion in New Canaan’s 35-34 come-from-behind victory.

Here’ who else was nominated for the airfield County Player of the Week award were:

• Khairi Fortt, LB, Stamford (11 tackles, two sacks, 48-yard interception return for a touchdown)
• Silas Redd, RB-LB, King (31 carries for 332 rushing yards, five touchdowns, five tackles and an interception)
• Axel Lee, S, Central (10 solo tackles, 3 special teams tackles and a sack)
• Chris White, DT, New Canaan (12 tackles, 4 for a loss and two sacks)
• Mike Lefflbine, QB, Greenwich (10-18-0-151 passing, one passing touchdown, 33 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown)
• Bo McCarty, LB-TE, Ridgefield (11 tackles and a 9-yard reception on a key third down)
• Turner Baty, QB, New Canaan (23-35-1-329 passing, three touchdown passes and a 2-point conversion pass)

Candidates for the Fairfield County Player of the Week award are nominated either direct from their coaches, by media recommendations or by fans of the FCIAC Football Blog on Facebook.

The Fairfield County Player of the Week Award is sponsored by BlueStreak Sports Training and supported by the FCIAC Football Blog.

Number-one New Canaan faces its biggest test of the 2009 season to date: A trip to Greenwich to play the scored Cardinals. Once third in most of the state polls, Greenwich has dropped way out of the Class LL race by virtue of its 14-13 loss to Central in Week 6.

But a Greenwich win over New Canaan – paired by a Trumbull win over Ridgefield, would put Greenwich in the driver’s seat to make its Thanksgiving game against Staples the FCIAC title game.

A loss, and Greenwich would be virtually out of everything.

But New Canaan is not a guaranteed victory. The Rams enter Week 8 on a 23-game winning streak. And quarterback Turner Baty has thrown for a mind-boggling 1,100 yards over the past three games. It’s also a balanced attack: Greenwich will need to be aware not only of Kevin Macari and Cody Newton, but slot receivers Willie Ouelette and Peter Gronseth and Peter Park, Tim Robustelli and Joe Costigan out of the backfield.

The knock on Greenwich this season has been its defense, which is quite surprising since its starters have given up only one touchdown. Best to say it’s an underrated group. And it can defend the pass: Cameron Ferrara has three interceptions for Greenwich, and the Cardinals have defended 10 passes on the season, led by Colin Bawol’s four.

This could be a good chance to see Greenwich quarterback Mike Lefflbine step up in a big game situation. Lefflbine’s numbers really don’t tell the full story, since he’s watched the second half of many games from the sideline because of blowouts. But he does have 12 touchdown passes and just three interceptions. He also leads the Cardinals in rushing.

I think this is going to be a classic last-team-with-the-ball wins kind of a game. Even though both teams are in passing-oriented offenses, I don’t expect a shootout.

But I expect the Rams to return home with the win.

For the rest of my Week 8 picks, please visit the FCIAC Football Blog.

It’s a great week for the family of the late Pete Demmerle. Last night, Demmerle was inducted into the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame.

Saturday, Demmerle’s number 23 will be retired by New Canaan High School.

It’s just a shame Demmerle couldn’t have received these honors before he lost his long battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in May of 2007.

But from everything I’ve heard about Demmerle from my former New Canaan High School teachers to my friends in the New Canaan Old Timers to the people who assembled last night at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Demmerle may have been too humble of a man to accept such an award anyway.

Since Demmerle was diagnosed in 1999, he was on another mission, one to help others. He became a champion for ALS awareness.

Here’s something I haven’t seen – or I should say heard – in all my years covering high school football.

Seymour needed to make some noise in its game against New Canaan, But the stands at DeBarber Field weren’t exactly crowded on a cold Friday night.

If the fans would get loud when New Canaan quarterback Turner Baty was calling the cadence, there would be a good chance the Rams would lose its composure.

So with the crowd not into it, the Seymour bench took matters into its own hands. It created the noise needed to try to rattle Baty and company.

It worked for a few plays. New Canaan was called for a delay of game, and had to call a time out. But New Canaan scored on its next drive and took the noise out of the game.

The first meeting between Warde’s Duncan DellaVolpe and New Canaan’s Lou Marinelli took place this past Friday. Here’s the game story I wrote for the Fairfield Citizen.

Here’s the interviews I did with DellaVolpe and Marinelli, courtesy of the FCIAC Football Blog:

First we have Marinelli:

And then we have DellaVolpe: