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caption, page 9:
At the Ready
Quinebaug Pride's Tylor Genest at Thanksgiving game. Photo courtesy of Joe Voccio.
caption, page 10:
Coming Around
Quinebaug Pride's Raif Santerre comes around the corner with the ball. Photo courtesy of Joe Voccio.
On to
playoffs for
Quinebaug
Pride
By Ron P. Coderre
The old prognosticator did it once again, outfoxing the young crowd with his wisdom garnered from years of experience observing high school football.
Prior to Thanksgiving the picks we made were, Quinebaug Pride in a squeaker over Killingly, Griswold by ten points over Plainfield and Windham in a lopsided win over Woodstock Academy. Jimmy the Greek couldn’t have done a more magnificent job in his heyday in selecting the winners.
Pride Prevails
Even a can of WD-40 or 3-in-1 Oil couldn’t have taken the squeaks out of the Quinebaug Pride victory over Killingly, as the contest went down to the last two seconds before the final outcome was decided. The Pride prevailed 14-6.
For the Redmen, the play was another example of just how the entire morning went, as they fumbled and bumbled the game. Killingly’s fumbleitis started on the third play of the game and led to the Pride’s initial score. After recovering the fumble, the Pride’s John Sanderson took a Tylor Genest handoff and raced 18 yards, putting QVP up 6-0.
The second Pride tally, which would prove to be the difference in the contest, came after the Redmen turned the ball over on downs. Looking at 55 yards to paydirt, the Pride methodically marched down the field and on a fourth and goal situation the other half of the Pride’s one-two combination, Raif Santerre fought his way over the goal line for the tally. He followed that touchdown by carrying the pigskin into the end zone on the two-point conversion for a 14-0 Pride advantage.
Early in the fourth stanza Killingly began coming to life and following a key Nick Hewitt to Troy Waterman 32-yard pass play, the Redmen’s premier running back Tyler Stucke ran in for the score. The two-point conversion failed resulting in what would be the final 14-6 outcome.
Although the Pride was held scoreless in the second half, the running of the “S & S boys,” Santerre and Sanderson chewed up yardage and time off the clock, keeping the football out of the hands of the Redmen. Sanderson ended the day with 23 carries for 121 yards and Santerre toted the pigskin 22 times for 90 yards.
The Sanderson-Santerre duo finishes the season with a combined 2301 yards, with Sanderson amassing 1240 and Santerre surpassing the 1000-yard mark with 1061.
The victory capped a highly successful regular season for coach Joe Asermelly’s Pride who finishes at 9-2 and the owner of a nine game winning streak. The tri-op program, ranked #8 in Class M, moved on to a CIAC postseason tournament encounter with the #1 team Valley Regional/ Old Lyme in a Tuesday evening encounter in Deep River.
For Killingly coach Chad Neal and his Redmen, they conclude the season at 4-7 and 2-3 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division.
Panthers Lose to Griswold in a Brawl
Three players were ejected as Griswold beat Plainfield 25 to 6.
The Wolverines junior running back David Jackson proved to be the difference in the victory as he accounted for all 25 Griswold points. The hosts, who hadn’t played a game in three weeks were rested and prepared for the Panthers. Riding on Jackson’s back (22 carries – 122 yards), Griswold took an 18-0 lead to the locker room at intermission, all on Jackson runs of 7, 1 and 31 yards.
After Plainfield scored in the fourth quarter on a Steve Jankowski to Killian Easton 7-yard pass play, Jackson demonstrated his versatility by snatching an Adam Davis 20-yard aerial for his fourth touchdown of the Turkey Day encounter. He then responded by kicking the extra point to cap his heroic 25-point morning.
The loss closed out Plainfield’s season at 5-6 and 2-2 in the ECC Small Division. The victory gave the Wolverines of Coach Glenn Labossiere the outright Small Division and completes their season at 6-4 overall and a perfect 4-0 Small Division record.
Woodstock Closes Out 0-11 Season with Loss to Windham
In a game played on Thanksgiving eve on a sloppy field in Windham, the Whippets of Coach Brian Crudden totally controlled the outcome, easily defeating Woodstock Academy 46-14. The Whippets built up a 46-0 lead early in the fourth quarter and were in jeopardy of violating the 50-point Cochran rule before Woodstock put up a pair of touchdowns in the final stanza.
Windham raced to a 34-0 halftime lead behind the play of signal caller Jack Risley, the running of Joe Santiago and Gilberto Torres and the all-around play of Brody Labbe and Dakota Fleming.
Woodstock scored on a 40-yard Billy Harrington touchdown and a Justin Cutting 4-yard run. Patrick Falkowski had a two-point conversion to cap the Centaurs scoring.
Windham finishes its season at 7-4 overall and 3-1 in the Small Division. It’s only loss came at the hands of Small Division champion Griswold. Woodstock closes its books at 0-11 and 0-4 in the Small Division.
Extra Points
Quinebaug Pride quarterback Tylor Genest threw only one pass in the victory over Killingly. It was also the first game this season that he hasn’t scored a touchdown… Killingly’s Tyler Stucke, despite being held out of three games with an ankle injury had 890 yards rushing entering the game against the Pride. He carried the ball 29 times for 143 yards, giving him 1033 on the season…According to reports, Putnam High School is content to remain in the Constitution State Conference due to dwindling enrollment. Student population is fewer than 300 at 270. There are 110 eighth graders and 100 seventh graders in the Middle School. The question, “How many will attend Putnam High School?”…Woodstock, which was enthusiastic about football when the program was reinstituted, reportedly had 42 members on the squad this year. Small numbers for a school of more than 1000 students…Plainfield’s loss to Griswold was the 11th in a row to the Wolverines on Thanksgiving…Plainfield quarterback Steve Jankowski had a good day in defeat.
He was 9-16-113 and one touchdown. He ended the season with 20 touchdown tosses and 1156 yards in the air.