Cromwell/portland coach feeling a sense of déjà vu with unbeaten team
CROMWELL — Randell Bennett knows how his Cromwell/portland football players are feeling this season. Bennett was a member of the first Cromwell football team in 2001, his sophomore year. His junior year, the team was big and talented but relegated to playing junior varsity before it could go to the varsity level the next year. Nobody wanted their JV team to play the Panthers, so they practiced a lot and managed to get in three games.
His senior year, Cromwell went undefeated and advanced to the Class S final, where the Panthers ran into Ansonia, losing 55-0.
Similarly, this season the second-seeded Panthers are undefeated at 11-0 and will play No. 3 Ansonia (10-1) Sunday in the Class S semifinals at 12:30 p.m. at Pierson Park in Cromwell.
Bennett is now in his fourth season as head coach. Cromwell, which formed a co-op with Portland in 2015, did not play last year due to COVID-19.
“The parallels from now to then, with these guys having their junior year, not being able to play — ‘Well, who can speak to you better than me about not being able to really play your junior year,’ ” Bennett said.
“Coach [Sal] Morello did a really good job that year, just keeping us focused. We didn’t get to play much. We got to practice and it ultimately led to the team being really good our senior year — and here we are now, playing the same team. Well, we’re in the semifinals. It led us back here and we’re super excited.”
They would like a different outcome, however.
The Panthers won two games two years ago, but many of the players who started on that team were young. They are now juniors and seniors.
“Midway through the ‘19 season, we were in games, close. We played SMSA, who was a playoff team and it was 7-0 in the third quarter,” Bennett said. “I would say to them, ‘We’re not supposed to win these games.’ We had seven freshmen get varsity letters. You’re not taking kids from eighth grade and beating anybody. I said, ‘Let’s just play football every week, watch the film and the things we need to get better at, we’ll work on in practice. And we’ll see next week how it goes. But we’re not losing to Rocky Hill.’ ”
Rocky Hill is traditionally the Thanksgiving game for Cromwell/portland. The Panthers, who had lost eight straight games, won the 2019 matchup 20-14.
“That set up the whole offseason. They worked up until the COVID break,” Bennett said. “Then we came back for those couple practices [last fall], then they went right back to the weight room.”
So, no, they’re not surprised that they are 11-0.
“We kind of knew going in we had a lot of talent coming in and a lot of experience from 2019 and other teams didn’t really have that experience we had,” junior quarterback Cole Brisson said. “I played and a lot of other freshmen played, lot of sophomores, at the time, played. We had a lot of starters return. So at practice, we got right into it.”
Brisson has passed for 1,755 yards and 22 touchdowns, while junior Alex Hair has rushed for 765 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Panthers have had some close games the past few weeks. They beat Stafford/east Windsor/somers 14-6 on Nov. 19. Against Rocky Hill on Thanksgiving Eve, they were down 14 in the third quarter and rallied to win 33-21. In the Class S quarterfinal game Tuesday, they beat No. 7 seed Notre Dame-fairfield 29-20.
“We needed to be tested,” Brisson said. “It kind of helped us.”
Cromwell hasn’t won a title since 2008 and hasn’t been to the final since 2011, when the Panthers lost to Holy Cross. Ansonia last won Class S in 2016, beating Cromwell/portland in the semifinals to get there.
“They are Ansonia; not much has changed about them,” Bennett said. “You have to strap your helmet up and get ready for a fight, because they’re going to come right at you. The faces change, but they’ll come right at you.”