By Dave Stewart
MaxPreps.com
NEW CANAAN, Conn. - Looking back over the course of a perfect football season, New Canaan head coach Lou Marinelli’s thoughts drifted back to the preseason, when his Ram team was faced with numerous question marks and big shoes to fill.
“Who would have thought at the beginning of the year when we lost nine on offense and nine on defense and we lost Charlie Westfal and those receivers and (Ted) Finan and the biggest offensive line we’ve ever had, that we’d be able to do anything,” Marinelli said. “Who would’ve thought we could come this far?”
No one perhaps, but the Rams themselves. Instead of a rebuilding year, 2008 has become an historic one with one of the greatest team of players ever assembled at NCHS.
Saturday afternoon at Trumbull High School, the Rams provided the exclamation point to a perfect season with a dominating 26-7 win over rival Darien in the CIAC Class MM championship game. The game was delayed by two hours as New Canaan’s bus broke down on I-95 en route to the game, but even that couldn’t disrupt the Rams’ march to the title.
The Rams scored 12 points in the second quarter and were never really threatened by Darien, a team they had beaten 28-20 for the FCIAC championship just nine days earlier.
New Canaan won its third straight State title and finished the year 13-0, becoming the first Marinelli-coached team to go undefeated and the first Ram team to go unbeaten since Joe Sikorski’s 1969 squad was 10-0. The Rams also earned the No. 1 ranking in every state football poll, and, more importantly, turned the dreams of the players into reality.
“It really is a dream come true,” senior receiver Kurt Ondash said. “No one expected anything from us at the start of the season. We weren’t even in the preseason top seven poll in the FCIAC. We thought we could be better than that, but I don’t really think anyone expected things to go as perfectly as they did.”
“I never thought about a perfect season at all,” defensive end Nick DiRubio said. “I was just thinking about getting by Trumbull and Ridgefield and our first three games, because I thought that was going to be the toughest part of our season.”
“Everyone was doubting us and I kind of believed them for a little while,” DE Evan Otis said. “I thought we were looking at maybe seven wins for the season, but after Trumbull and Ridgefield, I saw that we really had something here. We knew then we could prove everyone wrong and show what we were all about.”
Thirteen games later, the Rams are Connecticut’s best football team.
Quarterback and tri-captain Nate Quinn earned MVP honors with yet another stellar performance in the State final. Quinn completed 17-of-32 passes for 197 yards and two TDs, while throwing just one interception. He also rushed 16 times for 95 yards and a touchdown.
Ondash, who burned Darien for 106 yards and two TDs in the FCIAC final, was double-teamed by the Wave throughout the State final, but still came up with four catches for 47 yards, while adding two interceptions on defense.
With Ondash in double coverage, junior Cody Newton took advantage with four catches for 51 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“It shows how far Nate has come because he would get locked in sometimes with Kurt, and who wouldn’t, with a receiver like that,” Marinelli said. “But Nate was able to go to the next guy and hit him and Cody Newton had a tremendous game.”
Fullback Chris Sciarretta, who’s status was in doubt after he suffered an injury in last Tuesday’s State semifinal, had three catches for 45 yards and rushed eight times for another 47 yards. Tailback Sean Simmons had six carries for 17 yards and caught four passes for 46 yards.
The O-line of Conor Hanratty, Sean Donovan, Will Rice, Ben Hornblower and Buddha Tharp, which had been a big question mark at the start of the year, delivered again with another big performance.
The defense, led by ends Nick DiRubio and Evan Otis, linemen Eduardo Padilla, Wynne Holden and Nick Lemoine and linebackers Brandon Leeming and Sciarretta, also harassed QB Wheelock, sacking him seven times while holding the Wave to one score and 218 yards of total offense.
“If you go back and watch the film of the Turkey Bowl, we were so conscious of the routes they were running and the fact that they have a great offense, so we dropped our ends back into pass coverage,” Otis said. “That’s not really what me and Nick are all about, so this time we went in with a different mentality. Let’s go, go, go, let’s hit him and let’s get this over with. It was a different approach and it worked better.”
In the process, Wheelock and Kosnik were contained. Wheelock was 13-of-29 passing for 137 yards and tossed three picks, while Kosnik, Darien’s MVP in the Turkey Bowl, had four catches for 36 yards.
“One of the things that Joe (Ditolla) and those guys thought in going against Darien a second time was to give Wheelock more pressure,” Marinelli said. “The reason they came back the way they did, we felt, was that we gave him too much time. He could sit back there and throw to that big kid and even if that kid is double covered, he’s going to catch the ball because he’s that good. The game plan was to get after him a little bit more and double cover (Brian) Kosnik some of the time.”
The Blue Wave was hindered by the loss of tailback Nikki Dysenchuk, who blew out his knee during a 35-32 win over Hillhouse in the state semifinal, and linebacker James Patton. Tailback Michael Gencarelli, who filled in for Dysenchuk, carried 10 times for 81 yards for much of Darien’s offensive production.
Fittingly, the Rams found several ways to score while building a 12-0 lead.
Darien was pinned back at its own 3-yard line on a second-and-11 when quarterback Matt Wheelock handed the ball to Corey Caputo. Caputo tried to escape the end zone to the right of the line, but the Rams’ Wynne Holden plowed through the middle of the line and tackled Caputo for a safety and a 2-0 lead.
New Canaan added to its lead on the ensuing drive, going 50 yards on six plays and scoring when Quinn connected with Cody Newton for a 19-yard touchdown pass with 9:00 to play in the half. Ondash booted the first of his three PATs to make it 9-0.
The Rams continued to step up the pressure as Ondash and DiRubio ended the next two Blue Wave drives with interceptions.
Ondash’s pick stopped a strong drive by Darien, which reached the New Canaan 23-yard line before that play.
The Blue Wave was at its own 32-yard line when DiRubio nearly intercepted a Wheelock pass with nothing but open ground between him and the end zone. On the next play, DiRubio leapt for another pass and came down with an interception, putting the Rams at the Wave 25.
“On the first play, I was actually dropping back the way I was supposed to be and I just dropped it,” DiRubio said. “The second play, I kind of rushed to the line and didn’t have a play set, but I was supposed to be on the line. I thought the linebacker was blitzing, so I dropped back in the flat, watched the quarterback and he kind of threw it right to me.”
Ondash then made it 12-0 by kicking a 26-yard field goal just 25.6 seconds before halftime.
“We scored in a couple of different ways and showed how balanced our team can be,” Ondash said. “The defense stepped up and got the big safety to start the game and Cody stepped up with two big touchdowns. Nate did a great job running the ball again, like he did in the semifinals, so we showed we can beat teams in multiple ways.
Another interception by Ondash ended Darien’s first drive of the second half and put the Rams at the Wave’s 44-yard line.
On first down, Quinn made an incredible run for 40 yards, first running to the right sideline and then cutting back against the grain for to the left, reaching the Wave 4-yard line before being knocked out of bounds.
Four plays later, Quinn lofted a perfect pass to Newton in the back corner of the end zone for a 4-yard score and a 19-0 lead.
The Rams’ final score came at the end of an 8-play, 80-yard drive, which included a 25-yard completion from Quinn to Sean Simmons on third-and-10 from the New Canaan 20-yard line.
Quinn also completed a pass to Sciarretta for a 32-yard pickup, and later hit Simmons again for nine yards to the Wave 2-yard line. Quinn then scored on a QB keeper from two yards out and Ondash’s PAT made it 26-0 heading into the fourth quarter.
Darien averted the shutout when Cameron Ross recovered a teammates’ fumble and took it five yards for a TD with 2:42 remaining. John Gardner kicked the PAT to make it 26-7.
As the seconds ticked off the clock and the Rams celebrated on the field, the preseason doubts were a distant memory.
“Being able to prove everyone wrong was a big thing,” Otis said. “That’s not just something you take away from football, it works with other things too. The coaches made that clear and they’re right. If you put hard work into something you really, really love and you really want, you will come out with a lot of success.”
Masuk storms to Class L crown
The SWC claimed a pair of state championships, as the Masuk Panthers trounced Newington 56-13 in the Class L final, while the Brookfield Bobcats edged Ledyard, 16-14, on a late field goal by Nick Cacace in the Class M final.
For Masuk, the state title ended years of frustration, as the Panthers had finished as the runner-up in 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2007. This year’s championship was the school’s second, the last coming in 1998, when Masuk defeated Fitch 18-12.
Playing at Ken Strong Stadium in West Haven last Saturday, Masuk rolled out to a 29-7 lead in the first half en route to a decisive win.
The top-seeded Panthers (12-1) opened the scoring with touchdown runs of 28 and 43 yards by Alex Trump as Masuk went up 15-0. No. 3 Newington (10-3) then got on the scoreboard when Shane Leupold had a 69-yard TD catch late in the first, but Masuk went back up by two scores when QB Bobby Baker connected with Nick Bacarella for a 10-yard TD to make it 22-7. The Panthers led by 22 points at halftime and outscored Newington 27-6 in the second half.
Baker finished with 264 yards on 9-of-13 passing with four touchdowns. Niko Guerrera rushed 12 times for 119 yards and a touchdown, while Trump rushed eight times for 100 yards and two TDs. Bacarella caught three passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns, while Chris Cosmedy had three catches for 90 yards and a TD, and rushed seven times for 40 yards. In all, Masuk amassed 557 yards on offense.
Cacace's boot gives Brookfield Class M championship
Brookfield’s State championship was the first for the school since 1995, when the Bobcats defeated Wilton, 21-7. The SWC champions finished the year at 12-1, while defending champion Ledyard was 10-3.
Travis Treibt tok MVP honors with 95 all-purpose yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, including a pick in the final minute to end Ledyard’s last drive. Brian Kelly also had an interception late in the game.
Ledyard scored the game’s first two touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead after one quarter, but was held scoreless the rest of the way. Trevpr Treibt opened the scoring for the Bobcats with a 3-yard run in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to 14-7 at halftime.
Quarterback Jordan Burandt the scored on a 1-yard sneak in the third quarter, but Cacace’s extra point attempt was wide left, leaving Brookfield behind 14-13 heading into the fourth quarter.
With 1:47 remaining in the game, Cacace lined up again, this time for a 29-yard field goal, and found the mark to give the Bobcats the championship, 16-14.
Dave Stewart, the Sports Editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) Advertiser, is a MaxPreps.com writer and photographer. He may be reached at 203-966-9541 or at sports@ncadvertiser.com
