ECC embraces chance to showcase brand
Killingly-Waterford is 7th matchup of current ECC teams in state playoffs
Waterford — Depending on who you talked to late Monday, it was a playoff game against just another opponent, albeit a memorable one if only for the amount of rainfall.
Or it was the de facto Eastern Connecticut Conference championship, played between the second-seeded Waterford High School football team, the ECC Division II champion; and No. 3 Killingly, the traditional Division I power, in the high-profile Class M state tournament semifinals.
"A great test," Killingly coach Chad Neal said following his team's 35-7 victory over the Lancers, advancing the Red Hawks to Saturday championship game. "They were the Division II champ. We were close in Division I. We wanted to prove we were the better ECC team. They gave us a lot of looks. They've improved tremendously."
"We came out fired up," Waterford junior Jackson Harshberger said. "We lost pretty bad (to Killingly, 76-27)
“(Killingly head coach Chad Neal) was right on the money,” Waterford head coach John Strecker said. “He found places where we were weak. We had a really good defensive game plan early on.
“Then, at halftime, he made some adjustments.”
Sharpe scored on runs of 33 and 59 yards in the second half and had gains of 46, 45 and 22 yards. Jackson Lopes also scored on a 20-yard run.
“We were really committed to stopping the run,” Strecker said, “so you could see that once they got through the line, there was nobody there. We gave up a couple of big plays.”
The Lancers had a 38-22 edge in offensive plays in the first half.
That included a game-opening drive of 11 plays for 63 yards, culminating in a 10-yard touchdown run by Trey Brennan to give Waterford a 7-0 lead just 3 minutes, 26 seconds into the game.
The Lancers got the ball right back as Matt Sanford recovered a bobbled kickoff at the Killingly 45. They later had a first-and-goal at the Red Hawks' 5, but couldn't score.
Waterford also had drives end at the Killingly 17 and 36 in the first half.
“You're not going to win too many games, let alone playoff games, being in the red zone, or being in the short field and not getting anything out of it,” Strecker said.
It looked as if the Red Hawks finally hit on a big pass play late in the first half — and that the Lancers forced a turnover.
Kameron Crowe seemed to have caught a pass and turned it over at the Waterford.
The officials ruled that there was an inadvertent whistle that wiped out the play.
The Lancers were furious with the officials. Junior linebacker Jackson Harshberger said after the game that it didn't impact them.
“We had a chance to get it back,” Harsberger said when asked if it affected them. “We all knew that we can't change it and had to go and try to get the ball back.”
Senior Jacob Nurse threw a short pass to tight end Nathan Keefe on the next play that went for a 45-yards gaindown to the Waterford 38.
Sharpe later ran for a 5-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7 with 31.7 seconds left in the first half.
Nurse scored on a 5-yard run to open the second half.
He then ran in the conversion after the Lancers were called for encroachment to put the Red Hawks ahead to stay, 15-7, with 9:36 remaining in the third quarter.
Killingly stopped the Lancers on fourth-and-1 at their own 39 on the latter's next possession.
Sharpe scored on a 33-yard run two plays later.
The Red Hawks got the ball back with 2:57 remaining in the third quarter.
Sharpe ran for a 59-yard touchdown on the second play to push Killingly's lead to 29-7.
Strecker could appreciate what his Lancers did this season. They had one of the state's best turnaround this season as they were 3-7 last year (and 0-10 before that).
“It was great,” Strecker said. “It's historic for us. No Waterford team has ever played 12 games before in a year. We've never won a playoff game. These kids laid a foundation and we'll see if the younger guys can build on it.” n.griffen@theday.com