Running wild
Ansonia wins battle of NVL unbeatens behind McKnight’s big game
ANSONIA — It had all the makings of a classic.
Both teams were undefeated. Seymour averaged 42 points per game and Ansonia 33.
Instead, Ansonia’s Darell McKnight and the Chargers’ defense had other ideas.
Forcing a pair of first half turnovers and watching McKnight churn up 163 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone, Ansonia rolled to a 33-8 victory in a Naugatuck Valley League game at Jarvis Stadium in Ansonia Thursday evening.
The win marked 101 straight victories against NVL opponents for the Chargers.
After allowing 85 yards of offense to the Wildcats in the opening quarter, the Chargers turned the contest around with a 210-1 yardage advantage in the second quarter. In the process, McKnight scored two more times and the Chargers held a 26-0 lead at the half, on their way to their sixth victory of the season.
“I thought we found a second wind in that first half,” Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said after his team improved to 6-0. “We took advantage of a couple mistakes. We did not want that team to hang around. We know how good they are. The defense played great. They have a lot of good players on that team.”
The Wildcats looked as if they were going to give Ansonia a fight from the start, but an interception by Ansonia’s Jahni Barge and a fumble recovery by Shawn Richards stalled Seymour’s first two possessions, with the fumble recovery coming at the Ansonia 6-yard line.
“We were able to get the ball in their end of the field a number of times,” Seymour coach Mike Kearns said after his team fell to 4-1. “We did not capitalize. We either turned the ball over on downs or turned the ball over a couple of times. We did not take advantage. They came up with some big plays.”
The Chargers needed just five plays on their opening possession of the game to take the lead for good as McKnight showed his toughness. The Ansonia senior broke off several different tackles, before capping a 5-play drive with a 45-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead with 3 minutes, 14 seconds gone by in the game.
The Wildcats held Ansonia off the scoreboard on the Chargers’ next three possessions, but the de