This past week was the eighth of the 2018 high school football season. It was time for teams to make a move toward postseason contention, or time to keep the thoughts of a winning season alive. Here’s what happened in the local games:
Wolcott 44, St. Paul 28
Wolcott and St. Paul entered halftime of their NVL contest at McPhee Field tied at 14-14.
Spurred by a 24-6 third quarter, the Eagles ran away for a 44-28 win over the host Falcons in a ground battle that old-school, run-first fans would have appreciated. Wolcott improved to 5-2 on the season while St. Paul fell to 2-5.
Wolcott again used its explosive running game to rack up yardage and points. Jake Sforza ran 15 times for 246 yards and four touchdowns while Anthony Ligi carried 10 times for 92 yards and two scores. The Eagles tallied 339 yards on the ground to just seven in the air. On defense, Jake Filippone garnered 12 total tackles while Sforza was right behind him with 11. Justin Pawlak had 10 tackles while Nick Lafountain, Matt Olmstead and Ligi recorded eight tackles each. Filippone and Pawlak also had a quarterback sack apiece. Logan Lussier tallied seven tackles and a fumble recovery while Nate Olmstead had six tackles and an interception.
St. Paul didn’t exactly struggle on the ground in this one. The Falcons had 291 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Sforza scored on runs of 18 and 2 yards to put Wolcott ahead 14-0, but St. Paul responded with a 10-yard touchdown run and 16-yard scoring pass to knot the game at 14-14 by halftime.
Ligi put the Eagles ahead 22-14 with a six-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion in the third quarter. The Falcons responded with a two-yard touchdown run, but missed their two-point conversion to leave the score at 22-20. Sforza scored on runs of 39 and 71 yards, and Wolcott hit both of its two-point conversions to amass a 38-20 lead by the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Ligi took off for a 25-yard touchdown run. A 42-yard touchdown run and subsequent two-point conversion gave St. Paul the game’s final points.
Holy Cross 44, Wilby 6
The Crusaders had to move their Pink Out game at Alumni Field to Friday because of Saturday’s Nor’Easter, but it didn’t matter as they ran over the Wildcats.
Vincent Graziano had the highlight of the day for Holy Cross with a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown. Alex Ward, Taji Blizzard, Matt Judson and Kingsten Zenick each had touchdown runs, and Ward ran for over 150 yards. Connor Goggin caught a touchdown pass from Corey Fappiano. The Crusaders improved to 5-2 and finished 5-0 in NVL Brass Division games.
The lone Wilby touchdown came on an 82-yard kickoff return from Alemar Blondet. The Wildcats fell to 1-6.
Bristol Central 28, Capital Prep/Achievement First 7
Justus Fitzpatrick ran for over 100 yards and threw for over 100 yards in a Ram road win.
Fitzpatrick had two touchdown runs and added a long touchdown pass. Darrell Payton led Bristol Central with 167 yards rushing and a touchdown. The Ram defense allowed just barely over 130 total yards of offense to the Trailblazers in a strong effort. Central improved to 4-3 on the season.
Other games
Bristol Eastern lost 27-22 to Hartford Public at home to fall to 0-7. Justin Marshall threw two touchdown passes, one to Bryce Curtin and the other to Elijah Gagliardo. Treyvon Daniel had a fumble recovery for a touchdown and Jack Bachand kicked a field goal for the Lancers.
WCA lost 50-6 to Oxford and is 3-4. The lone Spartan touchdown was a long pass from Xavier Rivera to Langstun Racine.
Sacred Heart/Kaynor Tech was defeated 33-8 by Watertown and dropped to 1-6. Saijon McIntosh used a big pass completion to set up his own one-yard touchdown run for the lone score by the co-op.
Crosby fell to 0-7 after a 40-0 loss to undefeated Woodland.
On Thursday, Kennedy lost 43-0 to undefeated Ansonia. The Eagles are 3-4 on the season.
