No. 8 Cheshire falls to Norwalk

NORWALK — Norwalk’s Ryan Gilchrist had not thrown a pass in a football game since his freshman year.

So on fourth-and-18, with his Bears trailing late in the fourth quarter — sure, why not?

Gilchrist connected with senior Cam Edwards on a 58-yard touchdown pass with 3:07 remaining, putting Norwalk ahead for good as the Bears took down No. 8 Cheshire 25-15 Saturday at Testa Field.

Mysonne Pollard followed that TD strike with a pick six 14 seconds later to ice the victory, giving Norwalk a 4-0 record for the first time since 2011.

Gilchrist, a junior, is the Bears’ backup quarterback and was in for starter Shawn Brown when the big moment arrived.

“Honestly, I was terrified,” Gilchrist said with a smile. “I was looking over at the sideline waiting for Shawn to come back in. My hand was all slippery, I came in, I did it and kudos to Cam and kudos to the line for blocking. I can’t ask for more than that.”

“I believed in Ryan, he comes in to work every day, he’s a positive kid, and we always think positive as a team,” Edwards said. “In that moment, I knew Ryan was going to get me the ball and we were going to win the game.”

It’s a signature moment for the Bears, who had won their first three games, but were facing an unbeaten Cheshire team which is ranked in the GameTimeCT top 10. The Rams played without their star running back Christian Russo, who was sidelined with an injury, and starting QB Matt Jeffery was knocked out of the game in the first quarter. Cheshire’s defense held up well, and backup QB Michael Simeone threw a touchdown pass, but Norwalk pulled ahead late.

“There’s lessons in everything you do in life,” Cheshire coach Don Drust said. “There’s things we’ve got to correct and get better at. They played a really good game, they played hard and did a good job. There’s things we have to fix and at the end of the day, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Both offenses struggled to get going, as what was billed as a battle of running backs, turned into a battle of punters in the first half.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Bears struck first when Brown tossed a screen pass to Edwards, and Edwards carried it 32 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead with 7:18 remaining in the half.

The Rams responded after Tristan Washington returned the ensuing kickoff 56 yards to the Norwalk 35-yard line. Four plays later, Simeone lofted a TD pass to EJ Quint and Dylan Vazquez’s PAT made it 7-6 at halftime.

Edwards scored on a two-yard run for the only points of the third quarter, putting the Bears back in front at 12-7.

Simeone guided Cheshire to a go-ahead score in the fourth, with the six-foot, 225-pound Kevin D’Errico rumbling through the line for a six-yard touchdown. Jeffrey Gonzalez added two more points on a run to make it 15-12.

Norwalk was then faced with its big decision on fourth-and-18 from its own 42. Gilchrist and Edwards made the play pay off.

“We have all the faith in the world in Ryan and Shawn,” Miller said. “Coach Drust does such an amazing job (with Cheshire), and we knew we had to do something creative to get the ball in the hands of our best player. That was the call and the kids executed to perfection.”

For Cheshire, which had a chance to win despite playing without two key offensive players, the bye week is coming at a good time.

“We’re confident in all of our guys,” Drust said. “They work really hard and do a lot of really good things. There’s things we’ve got to fix, so we’ll go back and work on those, and there’s some things that we did good, and we’ll build on those.”

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Cam Edwards, Norwalk:

Edwards didn’t put up the eye-popping numbers of n the first three games, but he came up big with three touchdowns, including the backbreaking 53-yard pass from Ryan Gilchrist in the fourth quarter.

QUOTABLE

“These guys are a blast to be around. They love coming to practice and they love getting better. Win, lose or draw, they love being around each other, especially after the year that we had when we couldn’t do anything. It’s been an absolute pleasure to coach them.” - Norwalk coach Pat Miller on the Bears’ 4-0 start.