By Ron P. Coderre

Following three opening season games against the toughest teams in the Constitution State Conference and maybe even in the CIAC, the Quinebaug Valley Pride got on the winning side of the ledger with a win over Wolcott Tech in a game played in Torrington.

Plainfield, on the other hand, was handed its first loss of the season by an excellent Windham High School team, after the Panthers had opened the season with three straight victories.  Killingly, looking to find its way to a consistent winning pattern was dropped big time by Waterford, after the Redmen had posted their first win of the season last week.  

And Woodstock Academy stepped out of the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division and was shutout by Medium Division Montville.

Asermelly’s Pride Make Trip Enjoyable

If a football team is going to make a road trip to Torrington, it’s much easier to stomach the long ride if you can post a victory.  That’s exactly what the charges of Quinebaug Valley Pride coach Joe Asermelly did, as they picked up victory #1 of the season with a 31-17 win over CSC foe Wolcott Tech.  The game incidentally was an unusual Thursday evening encounter.

There were a number of heroes in the win as the victory was a complete team effort.  Kyle Loomis hauled in a pair of third-quarter touchdown passes to generate the momentum the Pride was searching for following a first half that saw them go to the locker room ahead by a single point 12-11.  Loomis’ catches came from the strong arm of quarter back Chuckin’ Charlie Innes.  The first score was a 65-yard pass-run effort followed by a 30-yard aerial score. 

The Pride opened the scoring in the first stanza when Sean Audette found Darren Bindloss on a 35-yard hookup through the air.  In the second quarter, running back Raif Santerre, who ran for 181 yards on 18 carries, bolted over the goal line from 5 yards out.

Mike Davis closed out the scoring in the final period when he broke loose for a 30-yard touchdown scamper.  Davis finished the evening with 82 yards on nine carries.  The Pride’s other two running backs also produced quality evenings.  Jeremee Perez amassed 73 yards on five carries and Cody LaScola was 3-25.  Perez was a defensive stalwart with a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery to his credit.

Quarterback Innes had 137 yards in the air on a 4-6 passing night.  Loomis, who was on the receiving end of all the Innes tosses, had 137 receiving yards.

The win boosts the Pride to 1-3 on the season and an identical 1-3 record in the CSC.  The Pride will be back at the St. Marie-Greenhalgh Sports Complex for a 6:30 p.m. encounter on Friday against visiting Prince Tech

Plainfield, Killingly and Woodstock Fall Hard

Plainfield suffered its first loss of the season, a 49-29 defeat at the hands of the undefeated Windham Whippets.  The Panthers, coming off a huge come from behind win over New London last week, were unable to sustain the winning momentum.

Plainfield fell behind early in the contest and by intermission was trailing the home team 36-19.  In the second half the Panthers were only able to put 10 points on the board.  Cody Alday had a pair of scores for Plainfield on passes of 36 and 23 yards from quarterback Steve Jankowski.  The other Panther scores were recorded by Isaiah Fort and Jordan Federer.

Jankowski had another good night through the air with 11 completions in 23 attempts for 266 yards and three touchdowns.  He also rushed for 62 yards on 11 carries.  Alday with 3-88 and Fort with 2-69 were Jankowski’s primary pass receiving targets.

The loss drops Plainfield to 1-3 on the season and 0-1 in the ECC Small Division.

The Killingly Redmen are giving coach Chad Neal premature gray hair as they were dropped soundly by Waterford 30-6.  After picking up its first win of the season last week, Killingly was buoyed and opened the game against the Lancers by jumping out to a 6-0 first period lead.  The score came on a Kyle Derosier to Chace Wood 11-yard touchdown pass.  After that it was all downhill as the Lancers defense and some bad bounces spelled the end of the scoring for the Redmen.

Austin Caffrey with 82 yards on 15 carries led the Killingly ground game.  The Redmen’s top ground gainer Michael Elsey saw limited action as he was hobbled by a bad ankle.  The loss drops Killingly to 1-3 on the year.  The Redmen travel to Bacon Academy on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. contest with the Bobcats.

Woodstock, which is suffering with manpower problems, stepped into the ECC Medium Division and took its lumps 40-0 at the hands of Montville.  The Centaurs have a total of 50 players on their squad and 15 of those are freshmen.  Following last week’s win over St. Bernard/Norwich Tech, the Acads are 1-3 on the season.  The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Centaurs, as they host the New London Whalers at the Bentley Athletic Complex on Saturday in a 3 p.m. start.

Pomfret School and Hyde-Woodstock Enjoy A Banner Week

After trailing 6-0 at halftime on a rain soaked Saturday afternoon in Pomfret against visiting St. Thomas More, the Pomfret School Griffins responded to coach Henry Large’s urgings and came on strongly in the second half to post a satisfying 27-6 victory.  The win puts Pomfret at 1-2 on the young season.

The Pomfret defense did its job in the final 30 minutes of play, allowing the offense to strut its stuff.  Three different players tallied for the Griffins with Josh Genovese opening the scoring on an 11-yard scamper.  Pomfret scored 21 points in the final period on a 35-yard run by Obim Okeke and a 19-yard jaunt by Emanuel Calmar.  John Chace closed out the scoring when he enjoyed a lineman’s dream, recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.

Okeke enjoyed a banner day despite the steady downpour, rushing for 117 yards on 15 carries.  Calmar amassed 99 yards on 18 carries.

Hyde-Woodstock traveled to Tilton, N.H., and the prolific Jimmy Murphy, who scored three touchdowns in the season opener, did everything but drive the bus for coach Sean Saucier.  On this rainy Saturday afternoon in New Hampshire Murphy crossed the goal line four times in leading the team to its second victory of the season.  He ran roughshod over Tilton, picking up 198 yards on only 11 carries.  One of Murphy’s scores came on a fumble recovery and the other on a punt return.

The Wolfpack also had important contributions from Dexter Thompson who had a pair of touchdowns and Kevin Ge who put the icing on the cake with a TD.  The victory raises the Wolfpack’s record to 2-1.

 

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