Connecticut: Rams Ride Wave for FCIAC Title

STAMFORD, Conn. – New Canaan’s Nick DiRubio shook his head as he looked around Stamford’s Boyle Stadium at the end of last Thursday’s FCIAC football championship game.

A crowd of 9,500 people had crammed into the stadium to watch the New Canaan Rams and Darien Blue Wave duke it out and few, in any, had sought to get a jump on the traffic before the game ended.

“There’s no other word for this than amazing,” DiRubio said. “It’s absolutely stunning running out on the field and seeing all these people surrounding you. Even if you’re getting booed or cheered for, it’s still awesome.”

And for DiRubio and his Ram teammates, it was also an awesome performance.

New Canaan built a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, withstood a tremendous push by the Darien Blue Wave and held on for a riveting 28-20 victory in the greatest chapter in the rivalry’s history.

New Canaan and Darien both entered the game with 10-0 records and were ranked one and two, respectively. Couple that with a frenzied week of tickets sales which forced the game to be moved from New Canaan’s Dunning Field to Boyle Stadium with its greater seating capacity, and the game was set up to be a classic.

“This is what every kid dreams about since you were eight years old playing junior football,” Darien senior Brian Kosnik said. “Just coming out here, it was great to see all the alumni out and cheering us on. It was just too bad we couldn’t give them something more to cheer about.”

“It was definitely crazy for both sides,” New Canaan senior Kurt Ondash said. “We had some of those third downs pumping the crowd up, and you could barely hear what the guys next to you were saying. It was awesome to get to play in an atmosphere like this. Not many high school football players get to experience this.”

The Blue Wave’s loss means it will have to hit I-95 for a trip to New Haven to take on the Hillhouse Academics in the Class MM semifinals Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The second-seeded Academics improved to 11-0 on Thanksgiving Day, but needed overtime to beat Wilbur Cross, 26-20.

Top-seeded New Canaan (11-0) will host the No. 4 Weaver Beavers (7-3) Tuesday at Dunning Field.

The Class MM championship game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 6, and yet another New Canaan-Darien clash could be in the making.

It certainly wouldn’t surprise DiRubio, who said the Rams have had their eye on this year’s Wave class for some time.

“We’ve known this class for a while, so we knew they were going to be good coming into this year,” DiRubio said. “We’ve always been dreaming about this game and following it the whole season.”

Ondash figured into New Canaan’s first three touchdowns, as he set up the first with an interception and scored the next two on 67- and 30-yard passes from quarterback Nate Quinn. The senior, who also booted four PATs, received the Rams’ Jack Dempsey MVP Award.

Quinn also had a big day for the Rams, completing 7-of-16 passes for 158 yards, with three touchdowns and one pick, while also rushing nine times for 19 yards.

Halfback Sean Simmons was New Canaan’s leading rusher with 59 yards on eight carries, while fullback Chris Sciarretta had 51 yards on five carries and put the game away with a 28-yard score late in the fourth quarter.

On defense, New Canaan had stellar performances from ends DiRubio and Evan Otis, linemen Wynne Holden, Eduardo Padilla and Jack Atchue, linebackers Chris Sciarretta, Brandon Leeming and Graham Rissell, as well as Frank Granito, Quinn, Ondash, Mike DiRocco and Simmons in the secondary.

The Blue Wave offense had a huge game with 425 yards, as quarterback Matt Wheelock, Kosnik and tailback Nikki Dysenchuk led the way.

Kosnik had seven receptions for 111 yards, added an interception on defense, and earned Darien’s Jack Dempsey MVP Award, while Dysenchuk had 21 18 rushes for 92 yards and a pair of 1-yard TDs. Dysenchuk also caught five passes for 77 yards.

Wheelock rushed 21 times for 101 yards and completed 17-of-44 passes for 226 yards and a touchdown. But he was picked off four times as the Blue Wave offense sputtered in the red zone and scored on just three of its seven trips inside the New Canaan 20.

“We just came up short,” Wheelock said. “The crowd was buzzing and we made some plays, we just didn’t make that last play when we needed to.”

The Rams had the clear upper hand early, and certainly appeared to be pushing the game into blowout territory.

On just the third play from scrimmage, Wheelock overshot Kosnik with a pass and Ondash came down with the interception and returned it to the Blue Wave 21.

Two plays later, Quinn connected with Mike DiRocco for a 20-yard TD and a 7-0 lead.

Darien marched 55 yards on 12 plays on the next drive but came up empty when the Ram defense held at the 15-yard line, and John Gardner pushed a 27-yard field goal wide right.

New Canaan’s offense came back out on the field and doubled the advantage on a second-and-10 play from the 34-yard line.

Quinn hit Ondash over the middle and Ondash broke free on the left side for a 67-yard touchdown. Ondash then booted the PAT to make it 14-0.

After the Ram defense held Darien three-and-out, Ondash provided one of the biggest highlights of the game during the next drive.

A 10-yard run by Quinn, a 15-yard penalty on Darien and a 4-yard run by Evan Otis moved the ball to the Blue Wave 30-yard line.

On second-and-six, Quinn threw a pass out to Ondash on the right sideline. Ondash bounced off of one defender, cut back across the field, received a big block from Otis and out-raced the defense to the left pylon for a 30-yard TD and a 21-0 lead.

“I was supposed to be running a vertical route and the corner just bailed out really deep so I just pulled up,” Ondash said. “Nate saw the same thing and dumped it off to me. I saw a line of them all across the field and I came back, passed one kid, got a couple of blocks, found some grass and was able to get in there.”

The Ram offense was operating full tilt, and but after grabbing the 21-0 lead, the Wave defense stiffened.

Led by linemen Mike Gasparino, Rocco Colandro and Greg Klein, and linebackers James Patton and Dysenchuk, Darien stopped New Canaan on downs on the next drive, and then allowed just 55 yards on the Rams’ next five possessions.

“Giving up 21 points, it’s tough because we’re always climbing out of a hole,” Kosnik said. “I just wish we could have those first 10 minutes back.

“We really couldn’t have played any worse, so there was no where to go but up. We all just dug in. It’s a really close-knit team and we came together and tried to fight as best we could.”

That allowed the momentum to shift in Darien’s favor.

In the second quarter, The Wave finally hit the scoreboard when Dysenchuk capped a 10-play, 77-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run with 3:06 remaining in the half.

An interception by Kosnik but Darien back in business with 1:34 to play, but New Canaan came up with a big stop when the Wave reached the red zone and the rams held the 21-7 halftime advantage.

Darien reached the New Canaan 18-yard line in the third quarter, but Granito intercepted a Wheelock pass in the end zone to keep the lead at 14.

The Wave, however, hit paydirt again when Dysenchuk scored on another 1-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter. The score capped a 55-yard drive and when Gardner booted the PAT, Darien was back to within one score at 21-14.

Darien stopped the Rams on three downs to get the ball back in Wheelock’s hands at the Wave 44. The Wave then marched 46 yards to the New Canaan 9-yard line before stalling.

Darien attempted to reduce the deficit with a 26-yard field goal, but New Canaan’s Brandon Leeming blocked Gardner’s kick with under six minutes remaining.

“There was a sense of relief,” DiRubio said. “It really picked us up. I was nervous the way they were driving down the field and to get that block and keep those points off the board was great.

“Our defense has done a lot of bend but don’t break this year and sometimes we take it easy right away but then we start getting serious and fired up when we’re tested.”

New Canaan struck quickly after the block as Simmons picked up 15 yards on first down. Quinn later connected with Cody Newton for a 15-yard pass, and Simmons ran 18 yards to the Darien 28.

Sciarretta then rumbled 28 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-14 with 3:54 to play, essentially turning out the lights on the Wave.

Sciarretta also ended Darien’s next possession with an interception, but the Wave added a final score when Wheelock connected with Corey Caputo for a 6-yard TD as time expired.

The FCIAC championship was New Canaan’s seventh overall and Head Coach Lou Marinelli’s fourth in nine chances. The Rams last won the league title in 2000 when they defeated Greenwich, 21-20, and made their last appearance in the final two years ago, when they lost to Greenwich, 28-0.

Darien, which is in its second year under head coach Rob Trifone,  was making its first appearance in the FCIAC championship game since 1998, when it beat Norwalk, 28-13.

New Canaan now owns a 44-33-2 record against Darien in the history of the rivalry.

After flying under the radar during the preseason, the Rams have made their mark in the history books and are ready to take the next step as they seek their third consecutive State championship.

“Pretty much everything’s worked out the way we hoped,” Ondash said. “We knew we had the pieces, but we had a lot of question marks with some unproven guys, but we thought if everyone improved and just did their jobs, we could step up. We thought we had the chance to do something like this and we’re really happy with the way it worked out.”

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