Late surge not enough
Greenwich survives Ridgefield’s 4th-quarter rally
STAMFORD — For three quarters Saturday Greenwich played like the No. 3 ranked team in the GameTimeCT Poll and twice was one score from triggering the running clock, which happens with a 35point lead in the second half. Closing the game out was a different story as Greenwich saw a 28-point lead after three quarters dwindle to just 8 points with 2:25 to play.
The Cardinals were able to get a pair of first downs as Ridgefield used up its timeouts and Greenwich survived with a 42-34 win at Boyle Stadium in Stamford.
The game was moved to Boyle due to the ongoing construction of the bleachers at Cardinal Stadium.
While Greenwich coach Anthony Morello was pleased with what he saw through three quarters, the final 12 minutes left a lot for Greenwich to work on.
“We preach all the time about hydrating and taking care of your bodies and we had guys starting to cramp up and shut down. Ultimately, you have to finish and that’s something we need to work on with our team,” Morello said. “We played three really great quarters of football and hopefully that fourth quarter was a good lesson for our guys. There’s a lot of teachable moments. The game isn’t over until the fourth quarter ends and Ridgefield is going to fight until the biter end, and they did.”
Greenwich was up 42-14 after three.
In the fourth, Ridgefield got three passing touchdowns from quarterback Justin Keller.
The last of the three came when Keller connected with Tor Petersen on a 10-yard touchdown with 2:25 left to play.
Rather than try an onside kick, Ridgefield squibbed it to Greenwich and tried to rely on their defense to hold.
Ridgefield had Greenwich in a 3rd and 5 but quarterback Jack Wilson kept the ball and ran up the middle for the first down.
Greenwich would get one more first down on a run by James Babb to clinch the victory.
Ridgefield was playing in its first game since 2019 and took a couple of quarters to shake off some rust
before getting rolling in the fourth.
“We knew coming into this game that if we weren’t successful, we could at least judge where we are,” Ridgefield coach Kevin Callahan said. “A halftime, that was a tall order and for our kids to respond like that was pretty special. It’s not easy to come back like that against a very good team. It says an immense amount about this group. This second half was going to determine what kind of season we would have and to their credit, they saved the season because they are a good football team.”
Greenwich got rolling early, going up 14-0 after one and 28-7 at halftime.
Babb scored the two first-quarter touchdowns.
In the second quarter, Logan Galletta ran back a punt 70 yards for touchdown and James Wailgum scored on a 32-yard pass from Wilson.
Ridgefield got second-quarter touchdown when Keller hit Nick Wright for a 14-yard touchdown pass.
Ridgefield was threatening for more but fumbled the ball on the
2-yard line as it was trying to score with 27 seconds remaining in the half.
In the third, Greenwich opened up the game further Thomas Foster breaking off a 47-yard touchdown run and Griffin Galletta bringing back an interception 30 yards for a touchdown.
In between those scored, Keller threw a touchdown pass to Kyle Snowstead.
Keller finished with five touchdown passes on the day.