LOOKING BACK | BY GEORGE ALBANO

10 YEARS AGO

One of the most successful seasons in Norwalk High School football history came to an end when the Bears lost to unbeaten No. 1 seed Xavier 55-14 in the Class LL state semifinals at West Haven’s Ken Strong Stadium. Xavier, which boasted an 11-0 record, grabbed an early 6-0 lead, but fifth-seeded NHS responded with a 72-yard scoring play with quarterback Delshawn Wilson passing to Andy St. Fleur. Jon Wilkins kicked the extra point as the Bears took a 7-6 lead with 1:53 remaining in the opening quarter. The Falcons returned the ensuing kickoff 48 yards and three plays later found the end zone to make it 13-7 with 36 seconds left in the period. Xavier added two more TDs and led 27-7 when Derek Edwards returned an interception 12 yards for a Norwalk touchdown, cutting the lead to 27-14. The Falcons made it 34-14 at halftime and then scored 21 unanswered points in the second half. The Bears finished 9-2, tying the school record for wins in a season, which included the program’s first-ever state playoff win in last week’s quarterfinals.

While the local high school football season officially ended, the Norwalk Recreation Adult Touch Football League is heading for the start of its playoffs. In the final Sunday of regular-season action, Resource Management beat Tucci Lumber 12-6 as former Norwalk High QB Mike Abate threw a pair of touchdown passes to Bobby Trimboli for 9 and 5 yards. Pat Moffett accounted for Tucci Lumber’s points with a 30-yard TD reception ... The Pastimes blanked the Gingerman 14-0 as Richie Sullivan, another one-time NHS quarterback, fired two long touchdown passes, one for 65 yards to Jessie Butler and the other covering 60 yards to Abe Prior ... Fairfield County Vending held off BJ Ryan’s 12-8 as Joel Geriak tossed TD passes to Lenny Abrahams and Ben Slutsky. For BJ Ryan’s, Ray Vega threw a touchdown pass to Lue Ville and a two-point conversion completion to Lonnie Smith.

25 YEARS AGO

It didn’t take Norwalk’s T.J.

Trimboli very long to make an impact in college basketball. Eight months after he made the two biggest free throws of his scholastic career to win a state championship at Norwalk High, the now-freshman guard at Southern Connecticut State University came off the bench in only his second collegiate game and sank another pair of free throws to give the Owls a 62-60 win over American International College in the second round of the Constitution Classic in New Haven. In his last high school game back in March, Trimboli went to the line with five seconds left in the Class LL final against Xavier and with the score tied 59-59 he calmly converted two free throws to give the Bears their third state title.

Local golfer Jerry Courville Jr. of Shorehaven ended one of the best years of his decorated amateur career by winning the Terracotta Invitational at the Naples National Golf Course in Florida. The 37-year-old Norwalk native played 76 holes in a span of 36 hours, including shooting a 4-under 68 in the opening round to break the course’s championship tees record by six strokes. His two-round total of 145 earned Courville co-medalist honors and he followed that with match-play victories Saturday and Sunday to garner the title.

The Brien McMahon-Norwalk High co-op girls soccer team didn’t win any games in its first official year of varsity status, but it did win the 1996 Sportsmanship Award from the Southern Connecticut Officials Association.

Norwalk’s Ellie Karvoski capped off her outstanding field hockey career at Northwestern University by being named a first-team All-American. The former All-FCIAC player at Brien McMahon started 86 out of 87 games during her four years at Northwestern and was the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer this season with 11 goals.

50 YEARS AGO

The Saints claimed the 1971 city championship after rallying to beat the Steamrollers 8-6 in the Norwalk Rec Adult Touch Football League finals on a frigid Sunday morning at Veterans Park. Both teams were division runners-up who upset the two regular-season division champs in last week’s semifinals. Like last week’s contests, the title game was also a tight battle. The Steamrollers took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter when Bob Kramer returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown. The Saints tied it in the second half when quarterback Pete Sileo fired a 15-yard TD pass to Mike Herring, and then hit David Salerno with the twopoint conversion to provide the winning margin. The championship game was officiated by Jack Casagrande, Ralph King, Sam Testa and Rick Fuller. Casagrande and King started the local league and serve as co-commissioners.

Local golfer Mike Dino scored his second hole-in-one at Oak Hills in less than four months when he dropped his tee shot into the cup on the 13th hole 100 yards away using his 9-iron. His first ace of the season came on Aug. 6 on the 145-yard fifth hole. Making his feat even more incredible was the fact that Dino returned to playing golf this year after a 10year absence.