Cromwell/Portland collects 19th straight win

GRANBY — Every time he gets the ball, Cromwell/ Portland’s Emeka Yearwood envisions himself breaking tackles, through the second level and into the wide open for touchdowns.Funny, his coach Randell Bennett sees the same thing and it’s why he had Yearwood taking handoffs rather than catching passes in a relatively big Pequot interdivision game at Granby/Canton Friday night.

With the game on the line Yearwood delivered with a nifty 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter which ultimately lifted the Panthers to a 14-7 victory.The victory was the program’s 19th-straight since the end of the 2019 season. More important, it gave this team a 5-0 record heading into a needed bye week. “We’re just happy to keep this going,” Bennett said. “Guys are fighting hard, fighting through injuries. I’m proud of them.”

Since senior Alex Hair fractured his leg within the first week of preseason camp, Cromwell/Portland has struggled to find the right mix of linemen and ballcarriers to run consistently and take pressure off quarterback Cole Brisson and the passing attack.

“He was the only one who could break long runs,” Bennett said of Yearwood’s occasional move to the backfield. “He broke a few long ones vs. H-K and we were looking for that.”

With the game tied early in the fourth quarter and C/P having dodged a few Granby/Canton haymakers, Yearwood took a counter hand off, dodged a tackle, slipped out of another, bumped into his lead blocker and scored the go-ahead touchdown.

“I expected to score right there because every time I get the ball, just big play and score, that’s what’s going through my mind,” Yearwood said.

Yearwood spiked the ball in triumph, however, and was hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct foul, assessed on the extra point. “Yea, it was like, we needed that and I was so hyped I wasn’t really thinking,” he said.

No matter, kicker Allen Cohen made the 35-yard extra point anyway, giving Cromwell/Portland a needed seven-point advantage.

Granby/Canton methodically marched down field, seemingly destined to answer. But on fourth and 3 from the 20, Will Migliaccio fumbled a premature snap on what was supposed to be a hard count. Cromwell/ Portland quickly swarmed over him, took over and ran out the clock.

“Cromwell/Portland is a damn good team, but in my opinion we’re a damn good team, too,” said coach Erik Shortell, whose 3-2 team’s only other loss was 21-14 vs. SMSA in the season opener. “We made just a few brain fart mistakes here and there and you need to play a perfect game to beat a great team.”

Led by senior sparkplug Luke Maher, who had one of the team’s two interceptions, the Bears kept C/P off the scoreboard until 40 seconds left in the first half.

Just after Ryan Rozich scored on a 1-yard dive, Maher promptly took the ensuing kickoff deep into Cromwell’s end, and two plays later the 6-foot-5 Migliaccio hit Connor Richardson with a 35-yard touchdown strike to tie the game with 12 seconds left in the half.

Granby/Canton saw two of their drives stall in Cromwell/Portland territory and missed a pair of field goals. “We’ll learn from this,” Shortell said. “Just like we learned from our SMSA loss. We’re right there. It’s just the little things. We’ve got to fix the little things.”

Cromwell/Portland also goes into the bye and — surprise — Hair might be coming back sooner than previously thought. Bennett said. “I looked at Alex Hair and he was like, ‘Man, this is the last game I’m sitting out,’ ” Bennett said. “Now, I don’t know what the doctor’s going to say about that, but it was stressful tonight.

“We’re glad to get out of here.”