No. 3 Rams hold off North Haven
NEW CANAAN — Time was not on New Canaan’s side during its football game against North Haven. The score, on the other hand, was another matter.
Using its trademark single wing offense, North Haven controlled the clock for much of the night, but No. 3 New Canaan came away with a 21-7 victory in a contest which clocked in at less than two hours Friday at Dunning Field.
Preparing for North Haven’s offense made for an interesting week of practice for the Rams (4-0).
“It’s very, very difficult,” New Canaan coach Lou Marineli said. “As much as you can practice it and you think you have their offense down, nobody can run it the way they do. The first series, our guys were getting used to the speed by which they run it. When it’s coming at you full speed, it’s a different story.”
It was a dramatic contrast in styles.
North Haven (0-4) had a remarkable 19-play, 80-yard scoring drive which featured three fourth-down conversions and ate most of the time in the first quarter.
North Haven tied the score at 7-7 when quarterback Matt Dodge capped that drive with a six-yard run early in the second frame, but New Canaan took just one minute and 13 seconds to respond, covering 66 yards on three plays to regain the lead at 14-7.
“It felt weird because we felt like we had no time on offense the entire game,” New Canaan senior cocaptain Ned Brady said.
“We were on defense the entire time, but we stuck through it. We played really good on offense those first two drives.”
North Haven has had a tough start to the year, as its first four games have been against oppoents which were a combined 12-0 coming into this week.
“The schedule is very unforgiving with very good football programs and we’re happy to play them,” North Haven coach Tony Sagnella said. “(The first drive) is what we try to be and we haven’t been our old selves yet because there’s so many new kids trying to learn how to run our offense. They’ve been breaking down here or there, but they’ve been hanging in there and it’s something that we can take home and build on.”
New Canaan had another solid effort from quarterback Henry Cunney, who passed for 141 yards with scoring strikes of to Mack Seelert and Hunter Telesco. Vincent Cognetta rushed three times for 48 yards and Dom Rasso had 10 carries for 40 yards.
North Haven had a time of possession advantage of 17:40 to 6:20 in the first half, and finished the game with a 29:35 to 18:25 edge. North Haven had 49 plays on offense, all but four of which were runs.
“The mission tonight was to take one play at a time and play as hard as you can,” Sagnella said. “We obviously have a lot of respect for (New Canaan) and the coaching staff and we knew what we were up against. That first drive was a great thing for our kids and it was a confidence booster. It’s just what we needed.”
Leading the North Haven rushers were Dodge with 81 yards, Adam Pandolfi with 44, and Jake Langner with 40.
New Canaan took a quick lead when Cunney connected with Seelert for a threeyard TD 2:02 into the game.
After North Haven’s long drive killed the rest of the first quarter and ended with Dodge’s touchdown, New Canaan answered, as Cunney threw a 23-yard TD pass to Telesco for a 14-7 lead.
The Rams’ first drive of the second half led to a 10-yard TD run by Conor Bailey to finish the scoring.
“The key to playing them is you’ve got to get up on them,” Marinelli said. “They’re an on-schedule kind of team and they’ll chew up the clock. If you’re not up on them or it’s close, they’re going to just methodically go down. (Sagnella) is like a surgeon. He just picks you apart.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Henry Cunney, New Canaan: New Canaan’s senior quarterback was efficient, completing 12-of13 passes for 141 yards, with touchdown strikes to Mack Seelert and Henter Telesco.
QUOTABLE
“We knew it was going to be a hard-nosed game coming in, and we had to stick to our assignments. It wasn’t going to be a game where one individual made these big plays, it was going to be team defense, filling gaps and taking down double-teams and things like that.” - New Canaan senior co-captain Ned Brady