CHARGING AHEAD
Ansonia routs Wilby in the return of football in Connecticut
WATERBURY — The coin went up Thursday night at 6, right on time. Wilby won the toss, deferred to the second half. Ansonia took the ball; Wilby defended the south end zone of Ray Snyder Field.
All the mundane details of a thousand games felt fresh again. CIAC tackle football was back after a year’s absence. Ansonia senior Darell McKnight received the kickoff in the drizzly mist, took it 15 yards, and the first sanctioned high school football game in the state of Connecticut since Dec. 14, 2019, was on.
“We stood as a team all day,” said McKnight, who ran for two touchdowns in the Chargers’ 48-6 win over Wilby.
“When we woke up, we had a team breakfast. We made sure we were locked in from when we woke up to our game time. It was just good vibes all day.”
McKnight said he hadn’t felt Thursday’s feelings in a long time.
“Going out the way we did my sophomore year against Sheehan” — the Chargers fell in the 2019 Class S semifinals to the eventual champion — “to come back and play hard, it felt good.”
State media converged on the
lone football game in the state on the first day of fall competition. For a while, they might’ve outnumbered fans, but a few hundred spectators braved the pesky weather and filled in the stands on both sides.
“Tonight was great. It’s bigger than Ansonia. It’s bigger than Wilby,” Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said. “It’s Connecticut high school football returning for a full season that I think these kids deserve, coaches, fans, communities, bringing everyone back.
“I think things were a little slower. You saw some things sloppy on both sides. I think it’s going to take a while.”
Ansonia, ranked ninth in the preseason GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll, scored on every drive except the one that ended the game. Wilby, in coach Preston Soeprasetyo’s debut, opened the second half with a 12-play drive, capped by Aaron James’43-yard pass to Jamare Hall.
“It felt good to be in pads and able to hit,” Wilby captain Jeremiah Mahlori said.
The 2020 season was a saga of lost hope and lost games; the CIAC never got a go-ahead recommendation from the state Department of Public Health to play a tackle football season last fall. A couple of independent leagues got a few games in before the state shut youth sports down for a couple of months.
The lost year, Mahlori said, at least gave players time to work and prepare themselves.
“Offensively, we’ve stepped up. I’d say our running back (James Richards) and quarterback stepped up a lot,” Mahlori said. “We’ve got some new guys on the offensive line, a couple of freshmen, stepping up. A lot of people are going to be stepping up for the next couple of games.”
Ansonia scored on the second play from scrimmage, a 42-yard pass from junior Chris Kaminski (6-for-7, 112 yards) to sophomore Machi Ingram. McKnight took a toss 24 yards for a score five minutes later. Senior Josh Dobbs went 13 yards for the third touchdown. Junior
David Cassetti (six carries, 98 yards) punched in the fourth touchdown. Sophomore Paul Palmer caught the fifth.
Eric Rodrigues capped the scoring in the fourth.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Darell McKnight ran for 95 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries, and he caught two passes for 37 yards.
HAVE NO FEAR?
With some of the youth and variety of contributors, it might be a little different Ansonia season than some others. McKnight went so far as to say he’d heard the Chargers, who haven’t lost an NVL game in a decade, called underdogs around town.
If that’s a stretch, the team is still a work in progress at this point with a lot of new players, even on a smaller roster than in past years.
“Just every day, the continuity of doing the little things right, it’s hard,” Brockett said. “Things that you take for granted, it’s just different in football than you’ve seen before. There’s a lot of things, like, all of a sudden we scratched our heads and said ‘oh my God, we didn’t go over that.’ You can’t take anything for granted.
“And I’m talking for everyone in the state. I’ve got a lot of buddies who coach. It’s not easy on anybody.”
UP AND AT ’EM
Palmer’s touchdown was set up by a gorgeous 32yard McKnight catch, going up one-on-one on the right sideline against a defender to grab it.
“I was like, it’s a 50-50 ball. I knew I had the advantage because I was on top,” McKnight said.
QUOTABLE
“It’s really important right now, more than ever: Kids need to be playing sports, bringing kids together, seeing kids smiling that maybe weren’t smiling over the summer and last year.” — Ansonia coach and athletic director Tom Brockett
Ansonia 48, Wilby 6 WILBY ............................ 0 0 6 0 — 6 ANSONIA ...................... 21 19 0 8 — 48
AN: Machi Ingram 42 pass from Chris Kaminski (Paul Palmer kick).
AN: Darell McKnight 24 run (Paul Palmer kick).
AN: Josh Dobbs 13 run (Paul Palmer kick). AN: David Cassetti 1 run (kick failed). AN: Paul Palmer 4 pass from Chris Kaminski (Paul Palmer kick).
AN: Darell McKnight 5 run (kick failed). W: Jamare Hall 43 pass from Aaron James (pass failed).
AN: 18 run (Eric Rodrigues run).