R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Jesuits’ QB Connor Smith sparks upset with his arm and legs
FAIRFIELD — A couple of mistakes had left his team down in the second quarter, so Connor Smith had to play escape artist.
Two Fairfield Prep touchdowns in the last two minutes of the first half — one a mad scramble for Smith, the other a pass from him to Tymaine Smith — tied the game, and two second-half touchdowns let the Jesuits knock off No. 3 Daniel Hand 29-16 on Friday in the SCC Tier I season opener at Rafferty Stadium.
Unranked Fairfield Prep noticed the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll, in which the Jesuits received votes but Hand received many more. Cocaptain Ryan O’Connell said the
Jesuits noticed some of their players didn’t get the preseason attention that some others received.
“We held a chip on our shoulder the whole time, the whole week,” Tymaine Smith said.
But Hand was up 13 with two minutes left in the first half, and the Jesuits faced third-and-4 from the 27.
Connor Smith dodged two defenders in the backfield, lost another at the line, ducked under the rush of a fourth and sidestepped yet another to reach the end zone.
“It was crazy. I broke three tackles. I thought I was down. I just kept going. It was the best feeling ever,” said the quarterback, a senior whose family moved to the area from Poway, Calif., in the summer of 2020.
“And then we scored again.”
The Smiths, no relation, hooked up on a 40-yard, third-down pass to tie the game after the Jesuits’ defense got them the ball back.
Fairfield Prep went hard to the ground in the second half, wearing down a Hand team that had a lot of players going both ways. Dan Barnick gave the Jesuits the lead for good with a 54-yard touchdown two minutes into the second half.
“We wanted to lean on (the run) a little bit, not only because we thought we could based on some of the stuff they were doing, but also to reassert our will,” Jesuits coach Keith Hellstern said.
“Up 3, down 13, then 16-16, this was a boxing match, and we had to go all 12 rounds.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Connor Smith scrambled for a touchdown and threw two more for Fairfield Prep.
“I think Connor, for a first-year starter, showed he’s capable of a lot of stuff,” Fairfield Prep coach Keith Hellstern said. “But that’s a lot to put on a kid. Here: It felt like a playoff game, right? We’ve been away for 21 months, and there were times it was a little hard for him and times he made some very good plays.”
The CIAC didn’t sanction a tackle football season last school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
TOUGH START
Erik Becker’s debut as coach of his alma mater didn’t go the way he hoped. He laid claim to all the blame for it.
“We had trouble with guys cramping, guys being out,” Becker said. “You always expect some mistakes the first night, and against a very, very good team like Prep, those mistakes amplify. They’re things you can’t get away with. I think Prep’s exceptional.”
The Tigers also lost senior running back Ethan O’Brien to a foot injury in the second half. He’d been banged up a couple of times in the first half.
FULL HOUSE
The Andrew Kral interception, the Marco Firmender sack, a couple of passes defended by Joe D’Elia: That’s just a selection of the Fairfield Prep big plays on Hand’s last two drives. An assortment of players stepped up at key moments throughout the night.
“They grew up tonight on the field, which is great,” Hellstern said. “When you think about it, only having three or four kids who’d played varsity football, to have as many people contribute tonight and showing the resiliency that they did, that’s what I’m most proud of.”
HONOR
Former Fairfield Prep assistant coach Hans Isler, who died this summer, and three alumni who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were among those honored with a pregame moment of silence.
QUOTABLE
“It means a lot, and I took this game very personal because I didn’t play in two years . ... And I loved it.” — Fairfield Prep’s Tymaine Smith on returning to the field after two years