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NewsFlash - SNCT to broadcast baseball, softball and lacrosse action this spring!
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Week 2 - Curren's Weekly SCC Football Report |
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Most high school coaches, particularly football coaches, live in two worlds. There is the real world, in which they do their daily job - the job that feeds their families - without much fanfare. Then, there is the alternate world for which they are better known, stalking the sidelines on Friday night, being interviewed by television stations with hundreds of people criticizing every wrong move they make.
Because of the attention given to the “alternate” world, it’s sometimes easy for coaches to forget about the “real” world, which tends to be fairly ordinary on a day-to-day basis. However, in July, the real world became a little too real for Cheshire coach Mark Ecke and the entire Cheshire community when two career criminals broke into a home in a normally quiet neighborhood, and tortured and killed three women: Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 49; and her daughters, Hayley, 17; and Michaela, 11. Dr. William Petit survived the attack by running out of the back door as the criminals - who had apparently already strangled his wife to death - burned his daughters to death.
Just typing that last paragraph makes me cringe and wonder why evil exists. Ecke was actually on vacation when the unthinkable happened in Cheshire, but his “real” job as a Cheshire police officer, meant his thoughts wouldn’t be near high school football for a while when he returned. “I was never directly involved with the case because I wasn’t here when it happened, but obviously at the P.D., that’s what everyone was dealing with, it was such a traumatic situation and such an awful crime.” Ecke said as far as he knew, no one on his team was really close to the Petit family - both daughters attended private schools - but last Wednesday at Cheshire’s home field, the Maclary Complex, about 1,000 people attended a memorial service for the family, at which Dr. Petit spoke.
On that same field five days prior, Cheshire had endured an upset loss to Hamden to open the 2007 season. This Friday, the Rams will host Hand in a game that could go a long way to deciding which of those teams will be a state playoff contender and which won’t. Important information in the alternate world. Not so important in the real world. “We all wanted to beat Hamden, but it’s not the end of the world,” Ecke said. “You look at what happened last week, and we’re not happy, but there will be other games. It’s still a high school football game.” As a sports fan - particularly in the 21st century - you spend a lot of your time overstating the importance of the games you play and the games you watch on television. Most of the time, sports are fun. At the high school level, many life lessons can be taught through athletics: how to work in the team environment they will see in the “real” world, how to persevere when things get difficult, how to deal with the little failures they may not see on a daily basis.
But they also need to know about priorities, something Ecke seems to have a pretty good handle on. “For me, I’ve always separated the two, whether it was one of our kids getting in trouble or anything else that has to deal with the Police Department,” Ecke said. “I’ve been doing this long enough where I can separate the two things.” No
one knows what will happen to the Cheshire football team for the rest of the season. Predicted to be one of the top teams in the SCC, the Rams took care of Foran, 39-7, last week to move to 1-1, but must go through a minefield of Division I opponents (as well as Southington on Thanksgiving) to try to get back to the state playoffs for the first time in a decade.
What we do know is that the “real” world in Cheshire won’t be the same for a while. High school sports can teach you a lot about what you’ll see in your adult life, but they don’t prepare you for what Dr. Petit called last Wednesday at the memorial service for his family, “Satan personified, evil on earth”. You just hope it’s the last we’ve heard of evil like that for a while.
STILL HANGING AROUND: New Hillhouse coach Tom Dyer was proud of his team‘s comeback that eventually fell short last Friday, 21-14, at Palmer Field against Xavier. And Dyer was a little upset at himself, saying “we need to prepare better“, for the team‘s first half, which saw them down 21-0 early in the third quarter.
From my perspective, though, I don’t think Hillhouse fans have much to worry about with the transition from Eric Barbarito and last year’s state champions, to Dyer, in his first head coaching excursion. The Acs, sporting young players at many positions, showed plenty of fire in the second half against a fairly solid Division I squad in one of the toughest places to play in the SCC. Hillhouse still has athletes that can score from anywhere on the field, and new quarterback Bernard Riscoe - although he struggled last week (6-of-24, 109 yards) - has good arm strength and good speed. The Acs also had to overcome some creative timekeeping against Xavier, as more than once on their final two drives, extra time ran off the clock after first downs. Hillhouse got inside the Xavier 20-yard line in the final seconds, but a penalty pushed them back and a couple of Hail Marys fell incomplete. After the last play, Dyer immediately ran to argue about the timekeeping, but the conversation with the officials remained relatively calm and Dyer refused to make excuses for his team’s defeat. “This doesn’t define us as a football team,” Dyer said. “The kids dug deep in the second half and showed a lot of guts. We’ll be fine if we play like that.”
Save a trip to Finn Stadium later in the season, Hillhouse should be able think that all the other games are winnable and 8-2 should be enough in Class M to make a return to the playoffs. And, as we have found out with Hillhouse and Hand, an SCC team in a class like M is usually the team to beat.
EXTRA POINTS: Jonathan Law thought they might have something for Fairfield Prep, but the Jesuits have been playing angry football so far this season, posting its second straight lopsided shutout, 42-0, as they prepare for Shelton this week. Cocky or confident? It’s often a fine line to walk, but check out this quote from Prep’s Ryan Nolan in the Connecticut Post after last Thursday’s game: “Shelton should be afraid of us because we have the best team in the SCC and we can’t wait to prove it.”. Rumor has it that it took about a dozen people to calm Geoff Shultz down after he read that one Friday morning …
In the only crossover week (full) of the 2007 season, North Haven became the only Division II team to beat a Division I squad, stopping Wilbur Cross, 27-20 at Vanacore Field Thursday night. Guilford came close, but had to settle for a 20-20 tie with Hamden, in a game that saw 33 of its 40 points scored in the second quarter. The tie may turn out to be costly for the Indians, who have a reasonably favorable schedule at the end of the campaign, although you have to figure Hand will be quite angry on Thanksgiving after getting crushed by Guilford last season …
It wasn’t a misprint in the Notre Dame-East Haven box score. Those two touchdown passes came from sophomore Conor Kinary to Patrick Byrne, not the other way around. Byrne has moved from quarterback to receiver … Foran ran its SCC losing streak to 13 with its 39-7 loss to Cheshire, but the Lions showed some signs that better things are on the way. In fact, Foran was unlucky not to be ahead at halftime, trailing 12-0 despite turning the ball over twice in Cheshire territory …
Hamden’s game with Xavier will be played Saturday night at Palmer Field, giving the Dragons nine days off between contests.
GAME OF THE WEEK Fairfield Prep at Shelton, Friday, 7 p.m. -- We already gave you Ryan Nolan‘s quote, which by now has probably gone from being plastered in the Shelton locker room to the front entrance to the school, but here‘s the counter from Shelton quarterback Phil Konopka: “It‘s a big game and we‘ll practice hard.” C‘mon, that‘s no fun. In all seriousness, this game should come down to whether Prep‘s defense can slow down Geoff Shultz and Andre Henderson.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Will Allen, Xavier - Allen got the Falcons out of their offensive slump by rushing 21 times for 162 yards and two touchdowns as Xavier held off Hillhouse, 21-14 at Palmer Field, a week after being stomped by Hand in their opener.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS 0, 82 Number of points Fairfield Prep has allowed, and number of points Shelton has scored, respectively, through two games of the season. It‘s the oldest cliché in the book, but something has to give here. Prep‘s defense has been tremendous, but this will be a much stiffer test than Wilbur Cross or Jonathan Law.
POWER RANKINGS
1) Shelton (2-0, Last Week 1) -- Won‘t be a lack of motivation on Friday night for Gaels.
2) Fairfield Prep (2-0, LW 2) -- They talk the talk, we shall see if they can walk the walk, too.
3) Hand (2-0, LW 3) -- Can‘t really get much out of the rout of Derby, Cheshire ahead.
4) West Haven (1-1, LW 4) -- Still lots of question marks to be had with the Westies.
5) Amity (2-0, LW 5) -- Lyman Hall offered little resistance, looking big and strong.
6) Xavier (1-1, LW 10) -- We‘ll know more about Falcons after the Hamden contest.
7) Hillhouse (1-1, LW 6) -- Despite the loss, was a fairly impressive effort for the Acs.
8) Hamden (1-0-1, LW 7) -- Silly ties make the Power Rankings confused and irritable.
9) Guilford (1-0-1, LW 12) -- Get the feeling Benoit thinks he may have a playoff shot.
10) Cheshire (1-1, LW 8) -- Still have a lot of work to do if they want to make a serious run.
11) Notre Dame (1-1, LW 9) -- Foran gave Cheshire a little run for a half, ND must show up.
12) North Haven (1-1, LW 15) -- No one in the conference works harder than the Indians.
13) Jonathan Law (1-1, LW 11) -- Looks like a fine line between average and D-II contender.
14) Wilbur Cross (0-2, LW 13) -- No Windsor Locks or Old Saybrook on the schedule.
15) Branford (0-1-1, LW 14) -- Big game for both teams against Jonathan Law this Friday.
16) Sheehan (0-1-1, LW 16) -- Result against West Haven was respectable, can they build?
17) Lyman Hall (1-1, LW 17) -- One blowout win, one blowout loss. Closer games ahead.
18) Derby (0-2, LW 18) -- Need to beat East Haven if they want to do anything this year.
19) Foran (0-2, LW 19) -- Lions showed a lot of life last week, we‘ll see if they can continue.
20) East Haven (0-2, LW 20) -- Still looking for their first points of the 2007 season.
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