Charging to victory
Cassetti, Ansonia come back to beat Naugatuck and win NVL
NAUGATUCK — The template was there again at the start of the second half, and though that drive went for naught, the next three didn’t.
David Cassetti scored all three Ansonia touchdowns as the Chargers finished an undefeated regular season with an NVL championship after an 18-10 win Thursday morning over Naugatuck at Veterans Field in front of an estimated crowd of 1,500.
The halftime feeling was simple.
“Stick to the plan,” Cassetti said. “Stick to the game plan, run the ball down their throat, Ansonia football.”
And they ran, only mixing in a handful of passing plays but mostly chewing up yardage and burning the clock.
Ansonia (10-0, 7-0 NVL Division 1), No. 8 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll, won the NVL championship with the victory. The Chargers had already unofficially secured the top seed in the CIAC Class S tournament, which begins Tuesday, when they’re expected to face North Branford. Pairings become official on Friday morning.
Naugatuck (8-2, 5-2) should be the fifth seed in the Class L tournament and face a trip to fourth-seeded, sixth-ranked New Canaan. It might have been the second seed with a win.
But after taking a 10-0 lead a minute into the second quarter on Dom DeSousa’s 34-yard field goal, the Greyhounds netted only 42 yards the rest of the game, and 39 of those came on their next drive.
“They played Ansonia football. They took it to us a little bit,” Naugatuck coach Chris Anderson said. “We had a hard time stopping them. And then, when we had our opportunities on offense, we just didn’t make it happen, bottom line.”
Ansonia leads the alltime series 77-35-10.
Cassetti caught Chris Kaminski’s 10-yard touchdown pass at the end of the first half. Ansonia received the second-half kickoff, got as far as the Naugatuck 9, used over six minutes of clock and came up empty.
The Chargers weren’t worried, and their next two drives produced touchdowns. They recorded three first downs on their last drive to kill off the last 4:31.
“We had a lot of penalties in the first half. It was killing our drives,” Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said. “We thought we had to start executing, and we did it.”
Naugatuck beat Ansonia last year at Nolan Field, snapping the Chargers’ 103-game winning streak
against NVL opponents. The streak is at 11 now.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Ansonia senior David Cassetti; this is a recording. One receiving touchdown, 23 carries for 170 yards and two scores, and the firstdown conversion to seal the victory.
QUOTABLE
“We won this game on effort and attitude. Our seniors have such great attitudes. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next two weeks, but I know these kids will give us some real effort, and I’m proud of them.” —Ansonia coach Tom Brockett