No issues at state semifinal

Cudos to the New London administration and staff for an incident-free Tuesday night.
Despite worries to the contrary, about the worst I overheard in the Class SS state semifinal was the crowd atop Bates Woods Hill on the Montville side singing the old mantra, "Na-Na-Na, Hey, Hey, good-bye!".
I can more than live with that.
One of the reasons for that, the game may have lacked the intensity of the first meeting that New London won on the last play of the game. It also lacked the fire and the atmosphere of the St. Bernard- Montville game on Thanksgiving Eve.
That's because the Whalers, trailing 7-0 at the half, essentially put the game away in the third quarter. Some folks even started leaving before the end of the third quarter.
At the end of the game, the New London and Montville teams not only shook hands at midfield, they hung around and talked to one another before getting into their individual huddles.
"We play hard and we tried hard and we kept digging, scratching and clawing against a team that
is going to go win the state championship," Montville coach Tanner Grove said. "They're going to go and beat Seymour on Saturday and I tip my cap to Jack Cochran and his entire team because that's a great team."
I tip my cap to both programs and schools for keeping the story line of this one on the playing surface, not the sidelines.