Area Football Heroics and Soccer Showdowns

For the second straight week, a local football team won on the final play of the game. This time it was Enfield, which scored on a 30-yard pass from Tony Romano to Adrian Crichton as time expired. When Anthony Trotta kicked the extra point, Enfield had a 7-6 victory over Stafford/East Windsor.

Stafford/East Windsor took a 6-0 lead in the third quarter on Tim Ford’s 4-yard TD pass to Matt Graham.

Windsor Locks/Suffield/East Granby football may not make the state playoffs this year. The Raiders are off to a 1-2 start. But no team has given its fans more thrills in three games. The Raiders won on the final play of the game a week ago. On Saturday, the late score went against them.

Tristan Cauley continued his fine season with touchdown runs of 34 and 72 yards but Granby scored with less than three minutes remaining on a run by Ben Marler to win, 13-12.

Ellington/Somers improved to 3-0 with a 35-0 victory over Gilbert/Northwestern. The Knights have outscored opponents 142-25. Bryan Rider ran for a touchdown and threw for another and Jake Schneider scored two touchdowns for the Knights, who will play Granby Saturday.

Windsor was making its second trip to Muzzy Field in Bristol in as many weeks but ended up making a third trip. Lightning stopped the Warriors game with Bristol Eastern Friday with Windsor trailing, 7-6. The schools came back the next night and it was a different game. Windsor reeled off 42 unanswered points and won, 48-7. Aaron Berardino caught three touchdown passes from Quinn Fleeting and scored another on a 5-yard run as Windsor remained unbeaten.

For those looking way ahead, Windsor is ranked second in the CIAC Class L rankings.

Rockville defeated Weaver, 28-6, for its first win. A.J. Spencer and Devon Charles each scored two touchdowns for the Rams.

Manchester shook off a halftime deficit and relied on Roy Richard and Marquis Little to defeat Simsbury, 22-14. The Indians are 2-1.

Cheney Tech is also 2-1 after DeShawn Smith scored three touchdowns to help the Beavers to a 28-0 victory over Prince Tech.

E.O. Smith is winless, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the efforts of Kodey Duplissie, who connected on a 34-yard pass to Jesse Lusa in the first quarter of a 33-12 loss to Hartford Public. The Panthers might be a year away, but Duplissie makes them worth watching.

AROUND AND ABOUT:

This was a week of early showdowns and the results were revealing. Suffield defeated Somers on an own goal, and then improved to 6-0 with victories over Canton and Bolton. Goal keepers Ben Woodhouse and Eric Johnson have not allowed a goal as the Wildcats have outscored opponents 22-0. As for the schedule, competition doesn’t get much sterner than Somers.

Mitchell Taintor and Darren McCall scored as E.O. Smith defeated Enfield, 2-0, but injuries knocked the Panthers off stride a bit this week. A 1-1 tie with Hartford Public was unexpected, although not unheard of, considering Public’s traditional defensive mindset coupled with bursts of attacking flair, but the Panthers remain undefeated at 4-0-3.

The football field wasn’t the only stage for dramatics. Tiana Edwards scored late to lift Windsor Locks to a 1-0 victory over Somers and Amanda Santos scored the first goal of her career to lead to Windsor a 1-0 victory over East Hartford.

There is difficulty in judging the early standings in girls soccer. A quick look would see Tolland hanging about in the middle of the pack in Class M at 3-1-1, the division is top heavy, but strength of schedule plays into this. The loss was against undefeated Hall and the tie against Rocky Hill.

Suffield has reeled off four victories and outscored opponents 17-2 since its early season loss to Avon (By the way, for those who like to make plans far in advance, those two teams meet again Oct. 25).

AHEAD:

This weekend’s Wickham Park Invitational is a major mid-season test for cross country runners. The early season meets are revealing but inconclusive, however, the Wickham meet, run in the same place as the state meets, offers stern competition and a chance to see where teams fit against each other. For instance, Tolland’s Emily Howard and Courtney Akerly finished third and fourth at the Ocean State Invitational last weekend but it’s difficult to determine where that places them within the state. The Wichham races will tell you that and a lot more.