Cards turned away
No. 6 New Canaan uses running game, defense to top No. 3 Greenwich
GREENWICH — New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli laughed off the question Saturday game about pulling out an old playbook from 1994 for the game against Greenwich.
New Canaan, ranked No. 6 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll, certainly went old school, running the ball all afternoon and relying on a stout defense in beating No. 3 Greenwich 14-7 at Cardinal Stadium.
“(New Canaan defensive coordinator) Chris Silvestri and the defensive staff did an amazing job getting ready for this game,” Marinelli said. “That’s a really good football team we beat today. I can’t be more pleased with our effort. We thought we might be able to run. The toughness of our kids really came through. I am so proud of their effort.”
New Canaan ran the ball 62 times for 307 yards while just passing just five times for 35 yards.
Senior Vincent Cognetta ran the ball 22 times for 107 yards for New Canaan.
Defensively, the Rams held Greenwich to 87 total yards on offense.
Greenwich coach Anthony Morello said his team missed some opportunities on offense.
“Unfortunately, we shot ourselves in the foot play after play,” Morello said. “We run a RPObased scheme and there are pass reads we just didn’t complete. I thought we ran the ball pretty well but we put too much pressure on our quarterback and forced him to do a little bit too much. We had guys open, we had lanes open. It will be a strange film to watch because I’m not sure why we weren’t able to keep going today.”
It was the first win for New Canaan over Greenwich since October of 2015. Greenwich had won the last three meetings.
The loss is the third of the season and deals a serious blow to Greenwich’s CIAC Class LL playoff hopes. Greenwich (4-3) entered the day seventh in Class LL but fell to 12th after the loss.
New Canaan (6-1), currently ranked fifth in LL, put itself in a great place in terms of the playoffs with three games remaining, including top-ranked and top
seeded Darien. Shelton and Fairfield Prep, seeded third and fourth, play this coming Saturday.
New Canaan scored first with quarterback Henry Cunney running for a 25yard touchdown in the first quarter.
New Canaan’s defense did not allow Greenwich anywhere near the end zone, but the Cardinals special teams kept them in the game. With 30 seconds left in the first half, Greenwich’s Logan Galletta returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown down the left sideline, tying the game at 7-7.
New Canaan continued to grind in the third quarter and Cunney again found running room, barreling into the end zone through a Greenwich defender with 3:31 left in the third quarter for a 14-7 lead.
With 4:13 left in the fourth quarter and Greenwich driving, New Canaan forced a fumble which was pounced on by senior linebacker Chad Russo. New Canaan could have run the clock down, but lost the ball on a fumbled snap on the 33 yard line with 54 seconds remaining.
The Rams held on four downs and left with a much-needed victory.
“We thought we matched up really well with them and we were going to go out and do our thing,” New Canaan junior WR/DB Mac Seelert said. “We have been ready for this since the summer. We matched up well with them and we dominated them today.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Chad Russo, New Canaan, Sr. OLB: Russo had three sacks, recovered a fumble and was in the Greenwich backfield all afternoon causing chaos.
QUOTABLE
“We just got after them,”
Russo said. “After the 7on-7 Grip it and Rip it Tournament, they kind of came on our field and disrespected us after beating us. There was definitely a little animosity coming off the edge today. You go into a game and you want to get a shutout, which we kind of did and kind of didn’t, but we held them to like 80 yards and whenever you can do that, it’s pretty special.”