New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Rich, Shelton manage to turn the tables on Hand
SHELTON — They knew they could run the ball, and when the Shelton offensive linemen open holes for Tyler Rich and he’s breaking tackles beyond them, it’s a sight to behold.
The passing game got the Gaels an early touchdown and helped open up the running game in a 33-20 win over Hand, a key victory in a game that might have sealed either team’s playoff fate.
“We wanted some payback tonight too,” Rich said. “These guys knocked us out two years ago. We gotta get it back tonight.”
Hand beat Shelton 21-14 in the last minute at the Surf Club on Nov. 15, 2019 — Shelton’s third loss that year and a game that pretty much knocked the Gaels out of Class LL playoff contention.
While this year’s Shelton team improved to 4-1, bouncing back after a jawdropping 41-7 loss to Trumbull two weeks ago, this dropped Hand to 2-3 and makes a potential road to a fourth consecutive Class L final a lot muddier.
“They’re big, they’re physical and they kind of did what they wanted,” Hand coach Erik Becker said. “We tried really hard to take it away and make them throw the ball to beat us. They were good enough to just be able to grind us down. We were throwing every look we had at them. And we just we couldn’t stop them.”
Rich scored the Gaels’ first touchdown. Quarterback Michael Kinik connected with Ricky Feola for the second to put the Gaels ahead for good; Kinik was 6-for-13 for 95 yards in the first half.
“We realized, if we’re going to be a good football team and get to the goals we want to get to, we have to be able to throw the ball better,” said Shelton coach Mike DeFelice, whose team had last week off while Hand played a makeup game from an early-season postponement.
“We worked on that a lot this week. I think we did an OK job of that tonight, definitely room to improve on it, but we did a good job.”
The killer came midway through the second quarter for Shelton when Randy Mones intercepted Patch Flanagan near midfield and took it down the right sideline to put the Gaels up 21-7.
“I’d seen them running (the play) a couple of other times, and I was saying in my head, ‘please run it again, please run it again,’” Mones said. “He ran it, and I was like, ‘yeah, this is my time to shine.’”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Shelton senior running back Tyler Rich ran 25 times for 178 yards and a touchdown.
TYPICAL BOX SCORE
Shelton outscored Hand 5-0 in the third quarter on a safety, with a punt-attempt snap from the 2 yard line going off the goalpost, and a Cristiano Rosa 25-yard field goal.
REVENGE TOUR
Shelton visits Norwich Free Academy. The Gaels beat NFA two years ago but NFA snuck into the Class LL playoffs.
POLLING
Both Shelton and Hand are former top-10 teams in the GameTimeCT football poll, Hand a preseason No. 3, Shelton seventh before a loss to Trumbull. Both were still receiving votes.
KEEP RUNNING
Hand had two 100-yard rushers in defeat: Ethan O’Brien ran 23 times for 112 yards and the game’s first touchdown, and quarterback Patch Flanagan had 105 yards on 21 carries, a few of them bruising rushes in the second half.
QUOTABLE
After an Oct. 1 loss to Trumbull and standout No. 5, Corbin Smith: “We said, all right, hey, there’s another No. 5 on the field, don’t let him beat us again. (Seth) Sweitzer’s a great player. We wanted to isolate him and make sure he wasn’t going to beat us. We’re pretty confident with our front six that we can stop the run, and they did a good job tonight.” —Shelton coach Mike DeFelice