It was late in the third quarter’s NVL football game at Municipal Stadium, and St. Paul was marching down the field against Kennedy.
It didn’t matter whether it was Max Peruta, Josh Silva or Brycen Kennedy carrying the ball. The Falcons were moving the pigskin on the ground, and looking to put some distance between themselves and the Eagles. St. Paul did what it needed to do and held on to beat Kennedy, 18-13, on a chilly but sunny late morning.
Peruta, Kennedy and Silva alternated runs on the drive that put Saturday’s game out of reach. Kennedy kept the ball himself down the St. Paul sideline inside the five-yard line, then Silva punched it in on a short touchdown run to put the Falcons ahead, 18-6. The Eagles scored a touchdown on a long, deflected pass from J’Kwon Crawford to Tre Graves with 4.5 seconds left to make the score 18-13, but it was too little, too late.
The Falcons improved to 2-6 while the Eagles dropped to 1-7. Silva ran for two touchdowns while Peruta punched in the other one. A good run game, especially the option, doesn’t happen without solid play from the offensive line, and the Falcons had that. Kennedy took snaps from his cousin, center Jack DelDebbio, who helped open holes for St. Paul runners, as did others like Joe Mazzarella and R.J. Murphy.
Kennedy and DelDebbio are no strangers to the quarterback-center combination. That collaboration began in fifth grade travel football in Southington.
Dereck Ledee threw to Terence Mallette for the other Eagle touchdown of the game.
Photo caption: St. Paul’s Max Peruta (8) gains a good chunk of yards during the third quarter of Saturday’s win over Kennedy. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
Gallery
Here are my photos from Saturday’s game.
