Were there any surprises on the first night of high school football?
There were a few things that caught my eye.
The first was the Putnam-Stonington game. Maybe I had too little respect for the Stonington offense or too much respect for the Clippers defense but the Bears ran roughshod over host Putnam 41-6 last night.
From what another coach who was at the game told me, the Bears just had a little too much in the way of size for Putnam.
In Willimantic, the difference was speed. The Whippets had more of that than Killingly did and the Redmen hurt themselves with five turnovers. It didn't help that Killingly's senior starting quarterback Kyle Fortin went down with a knee injury but the game was largely determined on the line of scrimmage as Windham's O-line, a line that has just one returning starter, opened some huge holes for Addison Fleming (184 yards).
The St. Bernard-Rocky Hill game was a coin toss in my mind, heads St.Bernard, tails Rocky Hill, and this time it came up tails. The two teams tied last season, last night went in Rocky Hill's favor, by a point in overtime.
Otherwise, Woodstock looked a little better than expected vs. Griswold, New London, Montville and East Lyme were all expected to win.
See you at the Windham Invitational this morning and Fitch High School tonight.