The first week of the high school football season mercifully ended for area teams on Sunday after Bristol Central traveled to Windsor for a makeup game. Here are some standouts from the opening week:
Have a night: You only get one chance to make a first impression, and Holy Cross freshman (yup, freshman) Dae’Sean Graves made a memorable one on opening night against Woodland.
Graves had three touchdown receptions, all from junior quarterback and captain Drew Caouette, in a 20-14 overtime win at Municipal Stadium’s Ray Snyder Sr. Field last Thursday.
Graves scored touchdowns of 48, 9 and 10 yards. His 10-yard score on a first possession of overtime put the Crusaders ahead, 20-14. Senior captain Marques Campbell knocked away a fourth down pass on the Hawk overtime possession to preserve the win.
Bristol Eastern defense wins the day: The whole Lancer unit deserves to be named, given that they outscored their opponents from Farmington in a 35-14 home victory over the River Hawks on Saturday.
That’s right, Eastern’s defense outpointed Farmington’s offense, 21-14. In a game where nearly all the scoring (28 points) came in the final quarter, the Lancers took their second lead of the game after senior Zion Otero recovered a fumble in the end zone. The first lead came in the second quarter on the first of two touchdown runs by senior Jaiden Fore.
Eastern again had a seven-point lead, 21-14, in the fourth quarter after Fore’s second touchdown of the game. That’s when the game’s final two scores happened, both courtesy of senior captain Adam Zavecz. He returned not one, but two interceptions for touchdowns in a 23-second span to stun the visitors and get Eastern to 1-0. Gavin Damboise added the extra point on all five of the Lancer touchdowns.
Spartan senior duo sinks Eagles: Kennedy couldn’t keep up with the WCA senior 1-2 punch of quarterback KaVaughn Canady and Julian Snead in a 36-0 game completed over a two-day span due to lightning.
Canady, a senior captain, completed seven passes for 174 yards. Four of those went to Snead, who totaled 150 yards and three touchdown receptions. Canady also ran for a touchdown, and Snead recovered two fumbles and a tackle for a safety.
