The North Branford football team improved to 5-1 on the year, with all five victories coming by way of a blowout. The Thunderbirds defeated Avon 47-7 on Oct. 17, making a statement against one of the squads circled on Head Coach Mark Basil’s schedule this season.

Last year, North Branford was 4-0 and beating Avon by 10 points in the final two minutes before letting the game slip away and being defeated 41-38. Basil believed the way that game ended had a direct result in the T-Birds going 3-3 the rest of the way a year ago, and he and his squad wanted revenge.

“Of course,” Basil said about the win being a redemption victory. “Them and Valley were two big teams we had on our schedule, but yeah, the guys came to play and played well.”

North Branford got things going early as quarterback Eddie Miller ran for two scores in the first quarter. His first touchdown run came from 17 yards out, and he followed that up with a nine-yard touchdown scamper.

The T-Birds made it a 21-0 game going into halftime when receiver Austin Calamita caught a 69-yard touchdown pass from Miller, his first of three scores in the game.

It was more of the same as the game resumed, and Basil was very happy about how his squad protected the football to assure they’d stay on top.

“We made no mistakes,” he said. “We made mistakes against Valley and didn’t make mistakes here, so that was the difference.”

In the third, Shelby Franklin was the first to score, catching a 39-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Paul Pastet. Miller did have an injury, according to Basil, so having Pastet finish off the game was not a difficult decision.

Calamita then scored his second score of the game, this one a defensive score. He scooped up an Avon fumble and returned it 39 yards for the score. At this point, North Branford held a 34-0 lead going into the final quarter of play.

To open the final stanza, Avon scored its lone touchdown of the game. Andrew Blackmore busted a 72-yard touchdown run to stop North Branford’s shutout attempt. The T-Birds did answer with two more touchdowns before the game was over, however, as Calamita caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from Pastet and Tyler Hawk pounded home a 1-yard touchdown plunge to win the game 47-7.

Offensively, North Branford ended the game with 403 yards on offense with 233 coming on the ground and 170 via the air. Both quarterbacks had an impact with their arms as Miller finished the game 2-of-3 passing for 87 yards and a touchdown and Pastet went 3-of-5 for 83 yards and two scores.

On the ground, Miller led the way with 66 yards and the two touchdowns as four others finished with more than 30 rushing yards. Calamita had his second 100-yard receiving game of the year as he posted a season-high 113 yards through the air on three receptions. His three scores also give him a team-high 14 for the year.

Defensively, Nick Sagnella led the way with 17 tackles, three of which were for a loss, and lineman Mike Kaiser had 1.5 sacks. Calamita forced two turnovers, recovering a fumble and intercepting a pass, while finishing with 11 total tackles.

“There’s nothing special. The guys just played well and that’s it,” Basil said. “There’s nothing that I have to say about our performance. We just played well.”