Fitch defense eventually runs out of steam in loss to Killingly

Groton — The Fitch football team had just lost to Killingly on Friday night, 15-6, when Mike Ellis Sr., the Falcons’ loquacious assistant, hustled on to the field clapping and barking, “good game" at his team’s defense.

Ellis Sr. wasn’t trying to be rahrah, Ollie Optimism. He meant it. The defense deserved it. “Listen, I thought the defense did a fantastic job,” Fitch head coach Mike Ellis Jr. said. “You look at the amount of points that Killingly has been putting up week-after-week (33.6 average), and you look at how much yardage they’ve been able to get through Killingly Fitch the ground week-after-week (209.9 yard average). I thought our defense did tremendous.

“The reason why the defense slowed down at the end is because of our offense. Our offense was not able to stay on the field and keep the Killingly defense out there.”

The Falcons (4-4) began the second half with a mas macho 16-play drive that drained seven minutes, 31 seconds off the clock.

John Johnston ended the drive with a 9-yard touchdown run to give Fitch a 6-2 lead. The extra point was blocked.

Killingly (6-1) scored on its next drive to go ahead, 8-6. The Falcons’ offense was unable to respond.

Fitch’s offensive issues began in the first half as its first three drives stalled at the Killingly 19, 14 and 29 yard line.

Robert Duncan completed 12 of 23 passes for 174 yards for the Falcons. Luke Letellier added five catches for 76 yards.

“You have to come away with points because you know against a team like that you’re not going to get those opportunities time-and-time again,” Ellis Jr. said. “We did not cash in when we needed to.”

Thus the Falcons’ defense had to work overtime against a Killingly offense that revolves around a physical, neander-ball running game.

Killingly ran 44 times for 228 yards. Spencer Lockwood had a game-high 27 carries and 161 yards.

“They had everybody in the box,” Killingly head coach Chad Neal said. “A couple of times they got to our quarterback when we tried play-action, which nobody has done this year.”

Ellis Jr. said, “They’ve been really starting to do a nice job with their sweep and getting (Austin Caffrey) out on the perimeter leading the play. And what we did was we put (defensive ends) Donte (Paul) and Trent (Evans) out there because we felt that they could take on (Caffrey). They were big enough to do it and turn the play back in, and that was really the key — to get someone on the perimeter where Killingly was not going to be able to get to the edge.”

Fitch got the ball with over a minute left in the first half at its own 9-yard line and the game scoreless.

It fumbled on its next play. Duncan was forced to kick the ball out of the back of the end zone for a Killingly safety.

Kyle Derosier threw a 28-yard touchdown to Jake Gauthier to give Killingly an 8-6 lead with over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Derosier added a 6-yard touchdown run on a bootleg with 7:48 remaining in the game.

“Killingly was very good,” Ellis Jr. said. “We were coming of a game (a 41-8 loss to Waterford) where we did not play hard. … These kids played hard from play one. They played the entire four quarters. They played right with a very good team.

“We just did not do enough offensively to win that game.” n.griffen@theday.com Twitter: @MetalNED