Ansonia turns back Seymour in shutout
ANSONIA — Coming into the contest against Ansonia, the Seymour football team knew how tough the Chargers were to score on. When the Wildcats twice got inside Ansonia’s 20-yard line in the first 6 minutes of the game, Seymour had to love its position.
Ansonia, ranked 10th in the GameTimeCT/Register Top 10 poll, then did what it does best.
Stopping the Wildcats each time, then again inside the Chargers’ 10-yard line right before the half, Ansonia built a 14-point halftime lead, on its way to a 35-0 victory over Seymour in a Naugatuck Valley League contest at Jarvis Field in Ansonia Thursday evening.
After a slow start, the Chargers put up 321yards of offense, including 192 yards rushing and two touchdowns by junior Shykeem Harmon.
“I was able to use my speed to get to the outside,” Harmon said. “It all starts with our offensive line. I thought we controlled the line.”
The Wildcats (6-3) had their share of opportunities as they accumulated 201 yards of offense, but only 59 yards in the second half. Seymour opened the game with 18 of the game’s first 21 plays from scrimmage, but came away with no points.
“I thought the momentum turned,” Seymour coach Steve George said. “We had the ball down there, but Ansonia is a good football team. When you let them get ahead of you by 21 points, it is tough to bounce back from. But, I thought the kids played hard. I am proud of the way they played.”
In an opening half which saw the Wildcats drive
inside the Ansonia 20-yard line three times without any points, Ansonia (9-0) needed two short drives to take a 14-0 lead at the half.
After the Wildcats were denied twice inside Ansonia’s 20 on their initial two drives of the game, Ansonia needed a split second to take the lead for good in the game.
Starting at the Seymour 49, Ansonia took the lead when Harmon broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage, then used a lone block to spring him loose for a 49yard score with 1 minute, 28 seconds gone by in the second quarter for a 7-0 lead.
“I thought we ran the ball really well,” Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said. “Our offensive line played well. I thought we wore them down. We had some big runs and just kept fighting.”
With the Chargers gaining momentum, they helped themselves on defense, then stopped a fake punt by the Wildcats at the Seymour 37-yard line. Eight plays later, Ansonia quarterback Sheldon Schuler connected with Jalen Johnson on a 5-yard scoring pass for a 14-0 advantage with 5:13 remaining in the opening half.
“I thought we did a great job against them,” Brockett said. “They have a lot of really good skill players over there. We were able to make some big plays.”
Seymour, which ran 38 offensive plays to Ansonia’s 20 in the opening half, had one more opportunity in the opening half to get on the scoreboard.
The Wildcats again drove down to the Ansonia 5, but two runs produced a loss of two yards, before Ansonia denied two Seymour pass attempts to preserve the first half shutout and 14point lead.
“They stiffened up the middle and made some adjustments,” George said of Ansonia. “They made those stops and then pulled ahead. They are a tough team to stop.”
The Chargers needed just three plays to go 68 yards in the third quarter for a 21point advantage. Harmon accounted for all of them as he started the drive with a 17-yard burst and capped the drive two plays later with a 42-yard scamper, led by a tremendous block from Tyler Cafaro, with 6:43 to go in the quarter.
Ansonia put the contest away with two scores in a span of 3:13 in the fourth quarter. Cafaro recovered a Seymour fumble and scored from one yard out with 5:47 remaining, and Jy’mere Jones scored from 44 yards out with 2:34 left.
Tyler Ganim led Seymour with 78 yards rushing on 28 carries.