No. 6 Fairfield Prep latest team in the Top 10 to suffer first loss

GREENWICH—With the No. 4, 5 and 7 teams in the GameTimeCT Football Poll losing Friday night, No. 6 Fairfield Prep had to feel a bit uneasy traveling to play No. 9 Greenwich on Saturday afternoon.

Prep (3-1) would meet the same fate as their poll mates, going down to Greenwich 14-7 in the first game played at Cardinal Stadium since 2019.

Greenwich (3-1) had been on the road all season as new bleachers were being installed at the school but got word Friday afternoon they would be playing at home.

The Cardinals scored on two long broken plays and the defense did the rest to beat the Jesuits.

“Our defense took last week personal (a loss to Shelton),” Greenwich coach Anthony Morello said. “They came in with a chip on their shoulders today defensively. They wanted to make a statement and they did.

“The whole team had a great week of practice. You can always tell when they’re tuned in for the entirety of the week. They were locked in and made no mental mistakes. It’s pretty black and white, when they’re locked in and focused, they can do great things.”

Greenwich would score first on a 66-yard run by quarterback Jack Wilson with 4:38 left in the first quarter.

Prep would answer before the half, scoring on a 29-yard pass from Connor Smith to Jack Reiling with 1:27 to play before halftime.

Greenwich scored on the first drive on the third quarter with Wilson scrambling to his right before hitting Charlie Dixon down the sideline for a 68-yard touchdown pass.

Prep would get in the red zone twice in the second half but failed to score each time.

“We struggled on the offensive end for sure. We have a lot of work to do,” Prep coach Keith Hellstern said. “It’s been kind of an up-and-down season in that way but it’s part of the growing pains that we figured we’d have coming into the preseason. We would hope by Week 4 to have more rhythm, but we didn’t have it today. We had spurts and stalls and that was the way the game ended up.”

Prep recovered a Greenwich fumble with 1:48 left to play on the Greenwich 34 but could not convert and turned the ball over on downs with 16 seconds remaining.

The teams combined for 16 punts on the afternoon with both teams routinely being in third-and-long situations following sacks or tackles for losses.

Greenwich, which needed a win to stay in the CIAC Class LL race, gets a bye now before facing St. Joseph, Trumbull and New Canaan.

Prep, which lost for the first time, also has a week off before traveling to Notre Dame-West Haven on Oct. 15.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Michael Sinisi, Greenwich, Sr., OL/DL: Sinisi, an offensive lineman, was called into duty on defense for this game and played both ways all afternoon, making big plays as a defensive tackle.

QUOTABLE

“We played lights-out defense. This is my first time playing defense since youth football and I think we all did a great job,” Sinisi said. “We needed to stop the run and it looks like we did that. Loved playing over there. It’s a different type of feeling when you’re playing defense. You get to be aggressive.”