Hyde &

Plainfield 

maintain

'win' pace

By Ron P. Coderre

In a week where the local high school and prep gridiron contingents posted a 50-50 record, two schools, Hyde-Woodstock and Plainfield, picked up key victories in raising their records to identical 5-1 marks. Plainfield bested Branford in an out-of-conference contest and Hyde took the measure of Evergreen foe Kent’s Hill.

The only other team to post a victory was the ever-improving Quinebaug Valley Pride, which traveled to Milford and came home with a satisfying victory over Constitution State Conference opponent Platt Tech.

Killingly, Woodstock Academy and Pomfret School all went down to defeat. Killingly was beaten by the visiting Ledyard Colonels, while Woodstock was white-washed by the visiting Griswold Wolverines. The Pomfret School Griffins lost a heartbreaker on the road to the Gunnery School.

Hyde Wolfpack Rolls Past Kent’s Hill

Hyde-Woodstock rolled to its fourth victory in a row and raised its record to 5-1 with a 43-14 trouncing of visiting Kent’s Hill. The Wolfpack, which has been led all season by high-scoring Jimmy Murphy, this week, demonstrated some other weapons in a complete team victory.

Demonstrating that they were all business, the hosts ran out to a huge and insurmountable 43-6 halftime advantage and coasted to the win. In unveiling some new weapons in its offensive arsenal, The Pack got off to a roaring start as Dexter Thompson opened the floodgates when he ran back an interception 73 yards for the first score of what would be a great afternoon for the Hyde machine. Thompson enjoyed a banner day as he also tacked on a 75-yard touchdown run from scrimmage at the end of the first quarter.

Marcus Greenridge, who had 113 yards on only five carries, posted a pair of touchdowns on a 1-yard burst and a spectacular 99-yard jaunt.

So where was coach Sean Saucier’s scoring machine, Jimmy Murphy in all of this offensive display? He was happy to see his teammates explode, but he also added to the offensive fireworks. “Murph” had a 12-yard touchdown run in the initial stanza and then tantalized the audience with a 57-yard kick return for another TD in the second quarter.

Pomfret School, which has faced some tough luck this season, traveled to Washington for a game with Gunnery and saw the bad luck continue as it lost a hard-fought contest 20-12 to the hosts.

The first half was played virtually even with Gunnery going to the locker room at intermission ahead 13-12. Pomfret’s scores came on an Emanuel Calmar 14-yard aerial score from quarterback George Schmidt and a Maguire Crouse 67-yard pass play to Obim Okeke. Those two scores would be all the Griffs would manage all day. The nail in the coffin came when Gunnery closed out the scoring as Andrew McCann picked up a Pomfret fumble and ran it in from 17 yards out with five ticks remaining on the clock. The loss dropped Pomfret to 2-4 on the season.

Pride Approaching .500 Mark with Win Over Platt Tech

The Quinebaug Valley Pride raised its season re cord to 3-4 with a satisfying 26-7 win over Platt Tech. The victory by coach Joe Asermelly’s troops came thanks to fine play on both sides of the football.

The Pride opened the score in the first quarter on the back of its “horse” Raif Santerre, who scored on a 51-yard run on the third play of the game. On the day Santerre would post 103 yards rushing on 20 carries.

Following Santerre’s TD, Cody LaScola electrified the crowd with an 82-yard punt return to give The Pride its final score of the first half. The teams ended the half with The Pride on top 12-7.

In the second half QVP got touchdowns from quarterback “Chuckin” Charlie Innes, who scored on a 32-yard scamper off a broken pass play and a Jeremee Perez 2-yard bolt in the final stanza. Perez had a good afternoon in a supporting role with 54 yards on six carries.

The Pride defense played an instrumental role in the win with three key interceptions. The first aerial thievery was made by Kyle Loomis, which set up Innes’ touchdown run. The second “int” was made by Santerre and after he ran it back 71 yards to the Platt 2 yard line, Perez finished it off with his score. Sean Audette was responsible for the final interception.

The Plainfield Panthers, due to the screwy Eastern Connecticut Conference football scheduling and the “opt out” rule, played its second out-of-conference game of the season. The Panthers motored down Rt. 395 to Branford and came home a happy bunch with a 42-26 win.

Quarterback Steve Jankowski continued his stellar play, throwing for 174 yards and two touchdowns on a 5-8 passing performance in leading Plainfield to its fifth win of the year against only one loss. His aerial tosses went to Isaiah Fort for 18 yards and his second to Jordan Federer for 29 yards. Federer also posted a touchdown tally of 3 yards, as he had 64 yards on six carries. Fort had three receptions for 101 yards.

Plainfield’s top rusher of the game was Tyler Ballard who had an even 100 yards on five carries including touchdown runs of 16 and 36 yards. The other Panther score was recorded by Kade Amster who recovered a fumble in the end zone.

Killingly, which probably has the toughest schedule of any team in all of Eastern Connecticut, went down 49-6 at the hands of the Ledyard Colonels, who are ranked in the Top 10 in Connecticut in the New Haven Register and New London Day polls.

Killingly, which has allowed opponents to score 239 points while only posting 129 points of its own, got its only score on a Kyle Derosier to Vasileios Politis 13-yard pass play. The team is 1-6 overall and 9-4 in the ECC Medium Division.

Woodstock continued its downward spiral as it was shut out by Griswold 34-0. The 1-5 Centaurs have only been able to manage 55 points all season, while allowing opponents to register 246 points.

 

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