New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Still in charge
Ansonia rolls past Seymour in battle of NVL unbeatens
ANSONIA 33 SEYMOUR 8
ANSONIA — It had all the makings of a classic.
Both teams were undefeated. Seymour averaged 42 points per game and Ansonia 33.
Instead, Ansonia’s Darell McKnight and the Chargers’ defense had other ideas. Forcing a pair of first half turnovers and watching McKnight churn up 163 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone, Ansonia rolled to a 33-8 victory in a Naugatuck Valley League game at Jarvis Stadium in Ansonia Thursday evening.
The win marked 101 straight victories against NVL opponents for the Chargers.
After allowing 85 yards of offense to the Wildcats in the opening quarter, the Chargers turned the contest around with a 210-1 yardage advantage in the second quarter. In the process, McKnight scored two more times and the Chargers held a 26-0 lead at the half, on their way to their sixth victory of the season.
“I thought we found a second wind in that first half,” Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said after his team improved to 6-0. “We took advantage of a couple mistakes. We did not want that team to hang around. We know how good they are. The defense played great. They have a lot of good players on that team.”
The Wildcats looked as if they were going to give Ansonia a fight from the start, but an interception by Ansonia’s Jahni Barge and a fumble recovery by Shawn Richards stalled Seymour’s first two possessions, with the fumble recovery coming at the Ansonia 6-yard line.
“We were able to get the ball in their end of the field a number of times,” Seymour coach Mike Kearns said after his team fell to 4-1. “We did not capitalize. We either turned the ball over on downs or turned the ball over a couple of times. We did not take advantage. They came up with some big plays.”
The Chargers needed just five plays on their opening possession of the game to take the lead for good as McKnight showed his toughness. The Ansonia senior broke off several different tackles, before capping a 5-play drive
with a 45-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead with 3 minutes, 14 seconds gone by in the game.
The Wildcats held Ansonia off the scoreboard on the Chargers’ next three possessions, but the defense finally broke in the final 7:28 of the half when Ansonia scored three touchdowns.
“We had some big plays out there,” Brockett said. “You have to execute. It is all about execution.”
McKnight turned the complexion of the game in an instant as he raced for a 71-yard score. When Machi
Ingram ran in the conversion, Ansonia led 14-0 and was about to blow the game open.
“We knew we had to come in strong,” McKnight said after finishing with 257 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries. “In big games, big-time players make big-time plays. My team was focused on playing. We came together and got the dub (win).”
After holding Seymour on its next possession, the Chargers needed just five plays to take a 20-0 lead, with McKnight taking the lead.
In his first time ever attempting a pass, the senior back found Ingram for a 29-yard pass connection to the Seymour 4, before McKnight raced in on the next play for a 20-0 lead with 4:17 left in the first half.
“We feel he has gotten better each week,” Brockett said of McKnight. “We have done a good job with that. We were able to grind it out tonight. We knew it was not going to be easy.”
The Chargers added the exclamation point in the first half, scoring with 30.7 seconds left in the second quarter for a 26-0 lead. McKnight started the 68yard drive with a 27-yard run and quarterback Chris Kaminski capped the drive when he found a wide-open Preston Dziubina for a 12-yard score.
“That is the best teams in the NVL and one of the best teams in Class S,” Kearns said of Ansonia. “We know how good they are. We knew we had to play a good football game to beat them. They were the better team tonight.”
The Chargers held a 345-86 advantage in yards in the opening half, but Seymour was determined to flip the script in the second half.
The first 12 minutes showed that as Seymour outgained Ansonia 136-12 and scored the quarter’s only touchdown when Michael Rossetti raced in from 70 yards out. A broken play on the conversion saw Timothy Lester hit
Sean Foster to cut the Ansonia lead to 26-8 with 46.7 seconds to go in the third quarter.
“I am proud of how my team fought,” Kearns said. “We fought to the end. There are a lot of things we need to clean up.”
Any hopes of a Seymour comeback quickly ended when McKnight scored his fourth touchdown of the game, a 64-yard run with 6:48 remaining, for a 33-8 lead.
Ansonia’s David Cassetti ran for 97 yards in the win.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Darell McKnight — The Ansonia senior back ran for 257 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries as Ansonia improved to 6-0. McKnight was at his best as he scored twice, including a 71-yard run, and ran for 108 yards in the second quarter alone.