Montville hanging tough with St. Joseph's

St. Joseph has had the edge in possession, Montville in position in the first half of the Class SS state championship game in West Haven.
The Indians have had more than their share of big plays, but turnovers have been costly.
A 52-yard pass from J.P. Morales to Jesse Sutherland got Montville down to the 33-yard line of the Cadets. A fumble by Tyler Girard Floyd was then picked up by Sutherland at the 13 and he moved it to the two. But the Indians fumbled into the end zone one-play later to end the threat.
The Indians also got a 44-yard run by Skyler McNair (4 carries, 46 yards), to the St. Joseph 29-yard line, only to fumble it back to the Cadets three plays later.
The Cadets, meanwhile, have not been able to get much against the Montville defense. Tyler Matakevitch has 58 yards on the ground, but it's taken him 14 carries to get it. Quarterback Joe DellaVecchia has completed 4-of-10 passes for just 19 yards.
The game right now rests on the leg of Montville kicker Ben Middel who kicked a 47-yard field goal on the last play of the first half to give the indians the 3-0 lead.

Wilcox says 'Montville is ready'

"This is Montville weather!," Montville assistant coach Gary Wilcox said as the indians left the field from pregame warmups.
The rain continues to come down at West Haven High School where Montville and St. Joseph's will square off for the Class SS state championship in just about 20 minutes.
Along with the rain, a stiff breeze has started to develop, blowing left to right across the field and it's definitely getting colder. Montville running back Skyler McNair went to find his gloves on the sidelines as he "couldn't feel his fingers" after about 20 minutes of warmup work.
Still, Wilcox thought the weather will work in Montville's favor as St. Joseph comes out of the spread offense.
"The kids are excited, they're up, they're pumped and they're just happy to be here," Wilcox said. "Now, we just have to go play against a very good opponent."

Bundle up

The game between Montville and St. Joseph's will take place today, but the conditions are far from ideal.
A steady, cold rain is falling at West Haven High School and the wind is beginning to pick up as evidenced by the umbrellas getting inverted in the stands.
The 2 p.m. games, including the Indians and Cadets and New Canaan against East Lyme will be played today. The two night games, however, will not take place until tomorrow at 2 p.m. as today's rain is expected to turn into snow by nightfall.
The Indians arrived at West Haven well in advance of St. Joseph's which came in around 12:30 p.m. this afternoon. The Cadets do have the proximity advantage as their school is just a short 20-minute ride away.

Evans not bothered by today's signing

Norwich Free Academy senior Kastine Evans is making one of the biggest decisions of her life today.
She didn't let that affect her on the volleyball court Thursday night.
Evans had 18 kills and 11 assists to help NFA defeat Fitch, 3-1, for its first-ever ECC championship in the sport Thursday night at Griswold High School.
This afternoon at 3 p.m. on the NFA campus, Evans will make her decision known as to what school she will attend to play Division-I college basketball, CiCincinnati or Kentucky.
"I already know," Evans said when asked if the announcement was weighing heavy on her mind Thursday night. "It's just there, everybody else is waiting, I already know."
Evans sounded pretty confident about the decision that she has made.
"Very comfortable," Evans said. "I know that where I go, I'm going to be in the right place. I think it's going to be the right fit for me."

Power and Ziegler are a handful

Woodstock Academy coach Jason Gerum came over to me at midfield as we watched his Centaurs battle the East Lyme Vikings in a boys soccer game on Wednesday and had one question.
"I wonder what their goal-to-shot ratio is?," Gerum questioned.
I only had a two-word answer for him, "pretty good."
The Vikings, at one point in the second half, had only three shots on goal- two of them found their way into the net.
That's what happens when you have players like Phil Ziegler and Gary Power. Ziegler is noew the school's all-time leading scorer and , not surprisingly , Power is now the all-time playmaker. Put that together and it spells more than trouble for opponents.
What's worse, the Vikings continue to put things together and could be primed for a run like last season. A run that carried them into a state championship game.
"We've had a very tough schedule and the only game we've lost in the past three weeks was to Waterford," East Lyme coach Paul Christensen said.
"We've fought back and started the momentum going again- we've played our best soccer in the last three days," he added. "We've come together as a team - it took a little while longer than I hoped - but this is the time of year that we want to play."
Ziegler finished with two goals on Wednesday to give him 26 on the season. Power helped on one of those to give him 23 assists on the season.
"This was a great way to end the season and go into the tournament on a high," Ziegler said of the Woodstock win. "Hopefully it ends like last year, in the finals."

Tournament time

If you are looking for something else to do other than just checking election results, there will be some good volleyball being played at Griswold High School.
The Eastern Connecticut Conference volleyball semifinals get underway at 4;30 p.m. with the Plainfield Panthers taking on Fitch in the first semifinal. The second matchup will pit the top seed, NFA, against No. 4 East Lyme.
One thing the Wildcats will not be able to do this season is sneak around. NFA is, of course, the defending Class LL state champ and that means the bullseye will be large, not only in the ECC tournament, but in the states which begin next week.
"It's tough to repeat, but we're hungry," NFA coach Bill Howard said. "People didn't know about us last year and we kind of flew under the radar. They will be expecting us this year."
That includes the Vikings who lost to NFA, 3-0, just a week ago but look like they have recovered with their bout with the flu bug that took place last week.
The Panthers have a tough task today as it will be their first appearance in a match at this level. The three-year old varsity program advanced with a little revenge -match win over Lyman Monday night.
"Fitch is a really good team and a well-established program," Plainfield coach Bob Arremony said.

Young offensive line coming together for Bears

Nick Burton anchors the middle with Henry Williamson and Ben Macko on his left and right andx the duo of Alex Mitchell and Luke Brogno at tackles.
The five comprise the offensive line for the Stonington Bears and without them, the double-wing could not hope to be as successful as it was against Killingly Friday night.
The Bears had the ball eight times at home against the Redmen and on seven of those occasions, they found the end zone in a 48-13 win. The win guarantees the Bears at least a share of the Eastern Connecticut Conference's Small Division title .
"Our offensive line really stepped up," Jim Connelly said. "Everyone blocked well, everyone played extremely well (Friday night)."
Connelly should know as he was one of the big beneficiaries, recording 149 yards on just nine carries. Josh Whitford added 101 yards in only 13 carries and scored twice for the Bears.
The nice thing for coach A.J. Massengale, that offensive line is comprised of almost all juniors and sseniors.
"They did a great job," the Stonington coach said. "They really opened up some good holes, we went right after people and for some young kids, they've come a long way."