Maloney’s Williams leads rally past Middletown

Williams’ pick6 sparks Maloney’s rally past Middletown

MIDDLETOWN — Seeing the Middletown slot receiver in motion, Maloney’s Jeremiah Williams jumped on a slant, ran the interception back, and turned around the entire afternoon.

Williams’ was the first of five consecutive Spartans touchdowns, erasing a twoscore deficit on the way to a 3421 Maloney win Friday at Middletown’s RosekSkubel Stadium.

“Right when Jeremiah got that picksix, the whole energy changed on the sideline,” Maloney quarterback Angel Arce said.

The CCC DivisionII crossover win kept Maloney (40) unbeaten and dropped Middletown to 22; the Dragons’ other loss is to No. 1 Hand. Both teams received votes in the most recent GameTimeCT poll; Maloney was 12th.

Middletown marched 59 plays on 10 plays off the opening kickoff to take a lead on Shaun Gaskins’ 5yard run. Kristian Glemaud shook off a tackle after catching a short pass from Chris Danas and turned it into a 95yard touchdown and a 140 lead. And then Kenny Fountain’s interception gave the Blue Dragons the ball back two plays later.

But then came Williams’ 68yard interception 3:04 into the second quarter.

“I didn’t even know it really happened,” Williams said. “I felt like I was dreaming. I just caught the pick and started running, running for my life.”

Middletown struggled to get anything going again after that,

and the Spartans kept scoring.

“We did a nice job first quarter, I think, 140 lead, got a nice interception, got the momentum, got to the 35 yard line,” Middletown coach Sal Morello said. “The kid made a really good play and changed the whole complexion of the football game. And it shouldn’t have. You can’t make one play do that. There’s no excuse, but it seemed like any time we did something right: Penalty.”

The flags kept coming, for sure. Middletown was flagged for the first 11 penalties of the game.

Arce threw three touchdown passes, the first two to Ian Graham and one to Kamron Moreno.

Maloney coach Kevin Frederick said it wasn’t a good week of practice for the Spartans, and that showed on the field. They survived a little adversity.

“It’s good to get that feeling in now rather than playoffs,” Arce said.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Jeremiah Williams, Maloney: His interception turned the game around.

PARADE

Middletown finished with 14 assessed penalties for 123 yards. The Blue Dragons had six flags in the first quarter, two on their opening drive, and shook them off for a while.

“Tough to get in a rhythm,” Morello said. “Tough to play offense secondand15, thirdand15.”

Maloney was called for seven penalties for 70 yards.

GRIND

James Tarver ran 25 times for 91 yards and the last Maloney touchdown.

“It means a lot, because we can groundandpound, and we can throw it,” Arce said.

BUGGED

The game was one of many moved to daylight hours because of concern about eastern equine encephalitis.

QUOTABLE

“Our DBs just stepped it up. We had a bad week of practice. Coaches thought we were going to get smacked. We just stepped up.” —Maloney’s Jeremiah Williams

mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp

Pete Paguaga / Hearst Connecticut Media Middletown’s Kyle Despres carries against Maloney during the Blue Dragons’ 3421 loss on Friday in Middletown.

Pete Paguaga / Hearst Connecticut Media Middletown’s Kristian Glemaud races for a 95yard touchdown during the Blue Dragons’ 3421 loss to Maloney on Friday at Middletown.