SCC column - Week 1

The first week of the football season is the chance for everyone to make their opening statement, the chance to not necessarily plead their case, but give some kind of inkling to what they're about.

At this point, we've heard plenty from almost every SCC team, but there is no way to know if much of the information we got in the preseason was accurate. We still may not know everything, but at least we have a blueprint for how the rest of the campaign. Six teams made a solid opening statement that proved they may be looking to bring the SCC their first state title in three years.

Hamden
You can talk about schemes and spread offenses and discipline, and all of those have contributed to Hamden's rise to the top of the state polls (where they most certainly belong, by the way), but Hamden's complete domination of Hand to me came down to the Isaac Newton rule, or more precisely Mr. Newton's second law of motion, which as you young scholars know is F=ma, or Force = mass times acceleration.

Isaac may not have been a huge fan of the pigskin, but if he watched Hamden play Hand at the Surf Club last week, he would know that the Dragons had both the mass and acceleration edge over the Tigers. They were bigger, stronger, faster, and with some solid coaching, eventually that's going to show through.

Hand quarterback Nick Merullo showed plenty of guts, rushing for 137 yards on 26 carries and generally taking a beating for two-and-a-half hours. At times, the Tigers were even able to move the ball. But their longest play of the night was 19 yards, and Hamden's secondary was too fast, and line - led by 6-foot-1, 285 pound lineman Jo-Von Ladson - was too big.

Meanwhile, Jordan Teague may not have the mass, but he certainly has the acceleration, rushing for 134 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown, while having a pair of 60+ yard TDs called back because of blocks in the back. Quite simply, he was a threat to score every time he touched the ball, and one Hand did not have. After one of those called back scores, Hamden decided to show off a couple of other weapons on the next play, Jason Lassiter hitting a flying Frank Greene for a 63-yard touchdown that, for all intents and purposes, put the game away.

On Hamden's third score, they decided to unleash Jahmaal Harris, who went 66 yards on only his third carry of the evening.

"Offensively, Hamden could have scored 35 easy," Hand coach Steve Filippone said. "We were fortunate. I thought they were legitimate penalties, but they didn't affect the play that much. We weren't tackling the kid anyway."

A team that's a traditional power, whose team was ranked in some polls, whose team was at home in front of a huge crowd on Opening Night, telling us his team was "fortunate" not to get beat worse, when his team lost 21-0.

That, my friends, is a strong opening statement.

Wilbur Cross
Shhhh, don't say it too loudly, but Wilbur Cross is good, very good, as good as anyone not named Hamden, at least by their flawless opening statement.

How flawless? At Palmer Field, a place where no one wins, the Governors led 21-0 before Xavier even ran a play. They took the opening kickoff, scored, recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, scored, rinse, repeat, and it was 21-0 with 9:02 left in the first quarter. Talk about stunned.

The headline in the Middletown Press said "Surprise!", but with a team that features Maurice Morrison and James Ward, we really shouldn't be surprised at anything they do this season. Equally as impressive, Cross held Xavier to just 18 yards rushing in the contest, and as long-time writer Jim Bransfield of the Press aptly put, "Cross was quicker across the board".

Ah, Mr. Newton strikes again. And he may be striking many times for the Governors before people figure out that this Wilbur Cross team may not be just "good story" good, they might be state playoff good.

Notre Dame
Reports were that Notre Dame was very good, and that Fairfield Prep was going to struggle mightily in Division I this season.

But, sometimes your instincts kick in and your brain tells you that ND was only 4-6 last season and hasn't been a real threat since the divisions were realigned. It also tells you that Prep is a massive private school and must have something for the rest of the SCC, especially in a home opener against one of its biggest rivals.

Final score: Notre Dame 48, Fairfield Prep 6.

Early reports 1, Instincts 0.

In reality, it wasn't even that close, it was 35-0 at halftime, 28-0 after one quarter. An opening statement that proves that they have to be in any discussion of the top teams in the SCC.

Shelton
The Gaels may not have the mass that Newton would have wanted, especially compared to the first three teams here, but they do have accomplished, veteran skill position players that will make life difficult for everyone.

Shelton did make a couple of defensive mistakes that kept West Haven in the game, but they did win the game, and showed that when their offense is rolling, it will be tough to stop. Ray Pendagast has size and can throw a ball as well as anyone in the league, and he also has players like senior Paul Piccirillo to fire the ball to.

The key for the Gaels seems to be whether they can deal with the size of teams like Hamden, but in a fortuitous scheduling quirk, the two Division I teams Shelton will not play this season are Notre Dame and Wilbur Cross.

Cheshire
The Rams, Class LL finalists last season, are almost an afterthought this season. Of course, that's because all-everything quarterback Billy Ragone has graduated, but Cheshire - after a sluggish start - took care of business in Woodbridge last week, 41-13.

It's not quite as dramatic an opening statement as the ones before them, but we'll know much more about the Rams after they take on Shelton this week.

Branford
Well, we had to put a Division II team in here somewhere, and the Hornets just might be the team to beat after their 19-3 win over North Haven and Hillhouse's troubles - albeit against Ansonia.

The score doesn't look terribly impressive, but the Indians are a good Division II team, and the Hornets' defensive effort was obviously eyebrow-raising after North Haven had given Notre Dame fits in their final scrimmage.

Branford gets a breather with Platt Tech this week, before a Hillhouse-Xavier-Hamden stretch in Weeks 3-5. The Hillhouse game, next Friday, at Bowen Field, may tell the tale in Division II this season.

With the opening statements complete, let the trial that is the 2009 SCC football season commence. The court will recess until Friday.

EXTRA POINTS: It was quite an Opening Night for Foran's Joe Capalbo. After the Lions tied the game against Lyman Hall 20-20, Capalbo missed an extra point that would have given his team the lead. But not to worry, Capalbo got a second chance and made it count when he drilled a 21-yard field goal as time expired to give the Lions a 23-20 victory in their first game without Jake White and Tyler Hames. Foran has a chance to be 3-0 in two weeks.

...Good crowds around the SCC in the first week, especially at the Hamden-Hand and Shelton-West Haven contests, which were almost full. Of course, trying to get out of the Surf Club on a Thursday (school) night was a disaster as usual. I love the atmosphere there, but I'm beginning to think that there has to be a better place for the Tigers to play, at least for big games. It took me the same amount of time to get from the I-95 exit to my parking spot as it did to get from all the way in Hamden to the exit. Silliness. Meanwhile, with the same crowd, I was in and out of Ken Strong Stadium in seconds. By the way, the parking/traffic issues at Veterans Stadium in West Haven for Hillhouse-Ansonia were not quite as bad as expected, maybe the blowout sent some fans home early.

...Speaking of the Ansonia rout, it has brought some of the NVL supporters out of the woodwork. Regular readers of this know how strong the SCC is, but this week might not be a great time to chirp.

....East Haven not only had to deal with Law last week, but some suspensions for a non-football related matter last weekend that involved several players. The Easties hung in, but fell 26-13 to the Lawmen

... West Haven's new turf looked fabulous, unfortunately, the lifespan of the new types of turf does not seem too long, some of the "older" ones that were put down, like Hamden and East Haven are showing their age a little. However, they're still better than torn up grass and the groups that are worried to the point of legislation about their causing cancer would be better served putting their time and resources in a non-smoking campaign.

....Check us out on Twitter, www.twitter.com/currenscc. If you have any story ideas or scores you want to get across, let me know.


PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Maurice Morrison, Wilbur Cross - Morrison caught only four balls, but20three of them were for touchdowns, and he had 161 yards receiving in all as Wilbur Cross went to Palmer Field and won rather easily, 37-19. The Governors are a force to be reckoned with in Division I in the early going.

GAME OF THE WEEK
Cheshire at Shelton, Friday, 7 p.m. - I'm sure the Rams, as defending Class LL runners-up, aren't terribly happy with how they have been dismissed this season, at least as far as the top teams in the SCC are concerned. But, after taking care of Amity last week, here is their chance to put themselves back near the top. The Gaels shook off West Haven in the season's first week and are expected to win here. But expected doesn't do the job on its own.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
295
Combined rushing yards for Cheshire's Max Slade (163) and Greg Palmer (132) as the Rams blew open a close game in the second half to beat up on Amity in their opener. Cheshire will look to use multiple people to replace Billy Ragone, who is currently playing at the University of Pennsylvania this season.
.
POWER RANKINGS
1) Hamden (1-0; Last Week 1) – Dragons look good. Very good. Scary good. State title good. But it's early.

2) Wilbur Cross (1-0; LW 4) – Still have plenty to prove, but the Governors are not just a flash in the pan.

3) Notre Dame (1-0; LW 5) – Will be interesting to see how they fare at Palmer Field after last week.

4) Shelton (1-0; LW 3) – Slightly shaky against young Westie s, but showed signs of being very good.

5) Cheshire (1-0; LW 8) – Bombed Amity, but would prove a lot more if they could do the same to Shelton.

6) Hand (0-1; LW 2) – Merullo needs to get some help if Hand is to be any kind of factor in Division I.

7) Xavier (0-1; LW 6) – Fluky loss or a sign of things to come? Falcons fans had better hope it's the former.

8) West Haven (0-1; LW 7) – Former stars Lymon and Demorro helping McCarthy on staff. Makes me feel old.

9) Branford (1-0; LW 2) - Evidently, all that scouting paid off for Branford. Don't think Platt Tech will be any problem.

10) Hillhouse (0-1; LW 1) - Acs will consider themselves fortunate they're in D-II where they can tinker a little.

11) Sheehan (1-0: LW 4) - Took care of Guilford, but bigger tests await Biestek and the Titans.

12) Amity (0-1; LW 9) – Were actually tied with Cheshire early in third before things started to fall apart.

13) Fairfield Prep (0-1; LW 10) - On the plus side, there's nowhere to go but up after a dreadful opener.

14) North Haven (0-1; LW 3) - Indians hoped for better in opener, they'll have to regroup in a hurry.

15) Jonathan Law (1-0: LW 5) - Lawmen took care of business, but hard to get a read on them after one game.

16) Foran (1-0: LW 7) - Good comeback win for Lions after falling behind to Lyman Hall. Tougher foes await.

17) Guilford (0-1: LW 6) - Didn't really recognize any of the names for Ind ians in opener. Maybe not a great sign.

18) Lyman Hall (0-1: LW 8) - Might want to get it done this week if they want to get in win column this season.

19) East Haven (0-1: LW 8) - See Lyman Hall.