RCDS spoils King’s party
Two touchdowns in the final 1:06 secures road victory
RYE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL 26 KING 14
STAMFORD — It was not the exclamation point for Homecoming that the King School football team wanted.
Rye Country Day School scored two touchdowns in the final 1:06 as the Wildcats secured a 26-14 road triumph over King Saturday afternoon at the Vikings’ field.
A capacity crowd of King School alumni were disappointed after King had forged a 14-14 deadlock with 5:02 left to play.
King had beaten Rye Country Day the past two seasons in this long-standing rivalry.
“It means a lot. After losing to them the last two years, it was nice to spoil King’s Homecoming,” Rye Country Day senior Allan Houston III said. “We just grinded it out the entire game.”
RYE COUNTRY DAY WAS OPPORTUNISTIC
The Wildcats, now 6-1 overall and owners of a six-game win streak, were strong on defense against King.
Rye Country Day forced two fumbles and grabbed a key interception to foil second-half chances for the
King offense.
“It was about pride. We wanted to win this for our spirit,” said RCD senior captain Cam Coleman, who moved from defensive end inside to nose guard for the contest. “Forcing turnovers wasn’t luck. We put our blood and sweat on the field. We hit King hard enough to create turnovers. Our pressure did the job.”
Rye Country Day did damage running the ball. Junior Cullen Coleman (6-foot-3, 220 pounds) amassed 196 yards rushing on 17 carries including a touchdown run of 45 yards with 48.5 seconds left.
Coleman’s work created the openings for a 23-yard TD pass in the second quarter to Allan Houston III for a 7-7 halftime deadlock.
Rye CD quarterback Nick Owens and Houston III combined on a similiar pass connection of 22 yards with 1:06 to play that put the Wildcats ahead to stay at 20-14.
“The pass play has been in the playbook all season,” said Houston III as his father, Allan Houston of the NY Knicks, was in attendance Saturday. “We finally made it work today. We all knew what we had to do for the victory. We all played as hard as we could.”
NO FANTASTIC FINISH FOR KING
King (3-3), which pulled out a win over Hamden Hall last Saturday with late heroics, spend most of the day stopping itself with turnovers or untimely penalties.
The Vikings did march 83 yards in seven plays in 2:42 for the game-tying touchdown with 5:02 to go. Jack Meizels had pass receptions of 39 and 16 yards. Levaughn Lewis rumbled in from 13 yards out on a bubble screen pass.
“We didn’t play well the entire 48 minutes,” said King’s veteran coach Dan Gouin. “It’s not a physical thing with us. I felt we were the physically better team today. It was the mental part of the game that cost us. Until the kids figured that out, this will be the outcome. We need more mental focus.”