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10/29/2016 12:00 AMThe Valley Regional-Old Lyme football team had Oct. 28 circled on its calendar and it wasn’t because its athletes were going to a Halloween party. It was because that date marked the Warriors’ contest against Pequot Conference foe Granby Memorial, a team that blew out Valley by a 29-point margin last year. Head Coach Tim King’s squad could hardly wait for its chance to avenge that defeat and Valley-Old Lyme served up a hefty helping of revenge by trouncing Granby Memorial 35-0 on the Bears’ home field.
The Warriors have now beat three of the four teams they lost to in 2015 after having previously defeated Morgan (37-13) and Ellington (14-7). Valley also lost to Hyde last season, but doesn’t play the Howling Wolves this year after they joined forces with a few other schools and moved to the Southern Connecticut Conference under the name Creed-Career-Whitney.
“There was a lot of motivation. They were one of the four teams we had on our wall,” said Coach King. “It’s not that we don’t focus on all the games, but there are always games that you circle, and Granby was one of them. It was on TV and we were embarrassed when they put [35 points] on us and so we were looking forward to getting after it with them.”
Valley-Old Lyme, which improved to 6-1 and maintained its top spot in the Class M State Playoff rankings, scored one touchdown in each of the first three quarters and then put the game away by finding the end zone twice in the fourth on its way to blanking Granby (1-6). Senior captain quarterback Matt Sapere completed 15 of his 23 passes for 176 yards to top the 1,000-yard mark on the season. Sapere also threw three TD passes with two going to fellow senior Garrett Burdick (7 catches, 94 yards) and the other finding the clutches of sophomore Jason O’Brien. Senior captain Daniel Stecher rushed for 90 yards a pair of touchdowns on 11 carries to round out the Warriors’ offensive attack.
Valley continued to struggle with penalties by committing a slew of them in the game, but overall, Coach King felt that his team “played a little bit better,” than in the previous week’s 35-20 win versus Prince Tech. King said the Warriors were “outstanding” on defense while stuffing Granby’s triple option attack, noting the performances of inside linebacker Michael Cullina and fellow junior Roan Sullivan, an outside linebacker/defensive end.
“It’s very difficult to defend the triple option in one week. Many teams we see are spread or [run the I-formation] or the Wing T, but when you get a triple option offense like Navy runs, you have to play responsibility football,” King said. “Everybody has to do their job. One guy lets down and doesn’t cover the pitch man and the quarterback pitches and it can be six points. So it’s responsibility football and our kids really did a good job of that.”
On the offensive side of the ball, Stecher brought home a 4-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and the Warriors held a 7-0 lead after one. In the second quarter, Sapere connected with Burdick on a 22-yard TD pass. Burdick was standing in a front corner of the end zone, caught the ball with one hand while a Bears’ defender was holding his other arm, and fell in for the score that made it 14-0 at halftime.
The only score of the third quarter was Sapere’s 5-yard touchdown pass to O’Brien. King said O’Brien “made an absolutely terrific catch,” in the end zone as he jumped above a Granby defender and snagged it out of his hands for a 21-0 advantage. Stecher got loose for a 33-yard touchdown rush in the fourth quarter to make it 28-0 and Sapere later found Burdick on a 15-yard TD pass when Burdick split two defenders and spun his way across the goal line. Burdick followed with his fifth extra point kick and the deal was done at 35-0. Burdick also made one other one-handed grab in the game that the officials ruled incomplete, although the video showed evidence to the contrary, according to the Warriors’ coaching staff.
On defense, senior Cody Stalls forced a fumble that was recovered by Burdick, plus Stecher caused a fumble that Granby recovered. Stalls also had 1.5 sacks, while Cullina recorded a half sack. For tackles, Stalls had nine with four for a loss, senior captain Mitch Conrad and Sullivan both made nine tackles, O’Brien had eight tackles, Stecher made seven, and Cullina and junior Blair Allen had six tackles apiece with three of Cullina’s going for lost yardage.
The Warriors are one of five Class M teams who own a record of 6-1, but continue to live on the top floor with their power point average of 117.14. The top eight teams make the playoffs and right now Valley is ahead of St. Joseph (114.29), Hillhouse (112.86), Killingly (110), Berlin (104.29), and Gilbert-Northwestern (98.57) in terms of the other 6-1 clubs. Next in line for the top eight right now are Bunnell and New Fairfield.
Coach King knows the postseason is on everyone’s mind, but he also knows the Warriors have to first take of their business in the regular season if they expect to compete in the playoffs like the team has done several times in recent years, including in 2014, when Valley-Old Lyme took home a state championship.
“Our ultimate goal is to win the state title, but there are rungs on the ladder, and each game is one more step up that ladder,” King said. “Getting in the playoffs is a step, winning that first game is another step, and all the way to the top. So we have three rungs to go on the ladder to get to where we want to be.”
The next rung on that ladder is fellow Pequot Conference team Lewis Mills, which is 3-4 and most recently took a 28-20 loss to North Branford. The two squads will battle it out in Deep River at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4. After that, the Warriors play at Canton at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12 and then close the regular season by hosting Haddam-Killingworth with the Principal’s Cup at stake at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
“Lewis Mills is very good. I won’t sugarcoat it. They’re 3-4, but they’re good. They’re similar to us with good athletes and a good defensive front and they’re a much bigger team than us, but just about everybody is,” Coach King said. “We’ll have our work cut out for us. They gave North Branford everything they could handle and so we better come ready to play and get out of the blocks right away. We can’t afford to start slow against these guys.”