Seymour contains St. Paul

BRISTOL — If Seymour’s football team didn’t have someone in defensive position Saturday at St. Paul’s McPhee Field, someone was on his way.

“They were able to stop the inside stuff and run to the outside stuff,” St. Paul coach Jude Kelly said after Seymour beat his Falcons 43-14. “It was like they had 22 players on the field.”

Though Seymour had a penalty assortment that included hurdling and sideline interference, too many defenders wasn’t one of them. Seymour held the Falcons to 178 total yards, 62 of them on the last St. Paul drive of the NVL opener.

“I think at first it was a little choppy. We had to wake up a little bit,” Seymour senior Cade KlaridesDitria said. “We made some adjustments. It worked out.”

Seymour quarterback Ian Sadick threw for 232 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Jonathan Dumas, and he ran for 69 yards and two more scores. Tyler Ganim caught a touchdown pass and returned a fumble for a score.

“The offensive line did a fantastic job. We could do a little bit of everything,” Sadick said. “I had great protection. Great run blocking.”

Interim coach Steve George credited offensive line coach James Burns for that.

“(Sadick) had time in the pocket. We ran the ball well,” George said. “The linemen worked hard.”

After a three-and-out to start the game, the Wildcats scored on three straight drives. Seymour penalties helped the Falcons get on the board at the second-quarter buzzer, but they fumbled on their first two drives of the second half.

St. Paul fumbled four times in all.

“Our defense, actually I thought, played pretty well,” Kelly said. “We were in position. But (the defense) just can’t be on the field that much.”

Ganim had a stop-and-go start on the ground but finished with 53 yards on 18 carries. Sadick gained at least 6 yards on each of his six designed rushes.

Sadick found Dumas over the middle for the first touchdown. Ganim turned a screen pass at midfield into a 53-yard score soon after.

“We did a pretty good job today,” Sadick said. “We’ve killed ourselves with penalties. It all starts in practice, discipline, stuff like that.”

The Wildcats’ defense controlled the line, too. Kelly thought the Falcons might have been able to take advantage to the outside, but Seymour, seeking a fourth straight CIAC playoff appearance, didn’t let them.

“They’re a great program. I mean, we run the ball, and they have a scheme to stop the run, which all teams do, but they also have the physical ability to be able to execute,” Kelly said. “It made it really hard for us to be able to do certain things, and the things we were able to do, they ran to the ball pretty darn fast.”

George was happy with the effort defensively.

“We had 11 helmets to the ball every play,” George said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching since Day 1.”