Waterford, no longer idle, rolls past Fitch 41-8

Waterford — The only win so far this season for the Waterford High School football team had come on paper, a forfeit. And because of the forfeit, the Lancers had not played a game since Oct. 10 against Stonington.

It's not certain what Waterford did during those interminable 20 days of practice.

But when they returned from the layoff Friday, the Lancers were good. Really good.

Trailing 8-7 after the first quarter, Waterford, possessing a fearlessness that belied its record, scored 34 unanswered points to smother Fitch — a team which just a week ago was playing for first place in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division — beating the Falcons 41-8.

And Waterford did so against its former head coach, Mike Ellis, who is in his first season as the head coach at Fitch yet still teaches many of his former players at Waterford.

"Some of the kids, they've been talking about this game since March," Waterford coach John Strecker said. "... We finally played together. We finally played close to our ability. The kids have been working really hard."

Strecker said there wasn't a lot of contact during practice during the layoff, but that the Lancers did a lot of drill-work and split up into squads, blue and white, to compete.

"We didn't finish stuff (earlier in the season). We made a lot of mistakes," Strecker said. "We all needed to improve. We all got better."

Chase Speller had three rushing touchdowns, including a 17-yard-run on the first possession for the Lancers (2-4), Mike Rochetti had a rushing touchdown and caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Jake Mangual and Mangual added a 1-yard sneak for Waterford's final scoring.

The Lancers held Fitch (4-3) scoreless in the second half, without a first down until there were four minutes remaining, and intercepted passes by Fitch quarterback Robby Duncan on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter. Fitch also fumbled a kickoff in the first half that led to a Waterford score.

Receiving the kick to start the second half, Fitch had four straight penalties on second down for 25 yards, moving the ball all the way back to the Falcons' own 4.

"I think what you had tonight, you had a Fitch team with no enthusiasm and a Waterford team that wanted the game," Ellis said. "For Waterford, it was more important to them tonight than it was to Fitch.

"We had guys that were weren't going to play hard ... guys yelling, fighting. You will not win like that. That was not a good football game at all."

Fitch took the 8-7 lead with 5:28 remaining in the first quarter on a 37-yard pass from Duncan to Luke Letellier and the ensuing two-point conversion, also from Duncan to Letellier.

Waterford attempted a field goal on its next series that fell short, but scored again with 7:17 left in the half on a 7-yard run by Speller, who gained 18 yards on the previous play. Fitch fumbled the kickoff and that's when Mangual found Rochetti on the left side for a touchdown.

After it was over, Waterford took a celebratory team picture in front of the scoreboard.

"We've been going hard in practice, as hard as we can," said Speller, who also had one of the interceptions along with Justin Keating. "We knew we definitely were a good team, but we made mistakes. Now we feel great. Everybody was doing their job. The offensive line blocked perfect." v.fulkerson@theday.com Twitter: @vickieattheday