Danbury tops Stamford behind Thomas’ 3 touchdowns

STAMFORD — Danbury coach Augie Tieri said his team learns more from losses than victories.

Friday night at Boyle Stadium, Danbury used the lessons it learned in the previous week’s loss to St. Joseph to help it to a 35-13 win over Stamford.

Tieri said it was the offensive line that gained the most lessons from Week 1, leading the Hatters to their first win of the season.

“Our offensive line play was one area we walked away from last game knowing we needed to improve and we challenged those guys all week and they answered the call,” Tieri said. “You look at what happened last game, we were the ones making mistakes and giving the ball away in our territory. It was nice to flip the script and to be the aggressors, and being able to force those kind of mistakes and turnovers. There were a lot of mistakes last week that we grew from and I think we are a better football team because of it.”

After a sluggish first quarter, Danbury got rolling in the second, scoring the game’s first two touchdowns.

First it was quarterback Darnell Bronson connecting with Nick Smith for a 15yard passing touchdown.

Then it was Bronson linking up with Jayden Leroy for a 16-yard touchdown pass.

Stamford would get on the board late in the quarter when Jack Stokes hit Nyshawn Johnson down the sideline for a 45-yard touchdown pass, leaving the score 14-6 Danbury at the break.

Danbury would increase the lead with Kyle Thomas scoring three traight touchdowns on runs of 1, 10 and 20 yards with a Stamford fumble and interception thrown in.

Stamford was playing in its first game since 2019 with just one player having played in a varsity game before.

“This is a young group and I am proud of them,” Stamford coach Jamar Greene said. “We had one kid that had a little varsity experience. They got tired there at the end. We have a lot of guys banged up, too. I commend these guys for coming out and fighting tonight. It’s going to be like this all season. We have lot of guys that should be playing skill positions, playing on the offensive line. We are light and that’s how it’s going to be this year. We’ll take our lumps and get better week-in and weekout.”

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Kyle Thomas, Danbury, Sr. RB: Thomas found the holes his offensive line provided him and made the most of them, scoring three times and breaking off a few long runs on the night.

QUOTABLE

“It was great to get the win but I want to give props to my O-line, they played great today,” Thomas said. “Our fullback Nick Smith and our entire O-line was putting in pain the whole game. They were blocking their butts off for me and I really appreciate those guys. I was so excited, so excited.”

Sericson @stamfordadvocate.com; @EricsonSports

DANBURY 35, STAMFORD 13

DANBURY ....................... 0 14 8 13 — 35 STAMFORD ..................... 0 6 0 7 — 13 D—Nick Smith 15 pass Darnell Bronson (pass failed)

D—Jayden Leroy 16 pass Bronson (Atrez Taft pass Bronson)

S—Nyshawn Johnson 45 pass Jack Stokes (kick failed)

D—Kyle Thomas 1 run (Leroy pass Bronson) D—Thomas 10 run (kick failed) D—Thomas 20 run (Thomas kick) S—N/A 6 pass Ejai Presley (Jack Solomita kick)