Captain Dave Sevigny (36) finds running room behind senior guard Jacob LaTorra (50). Photo: Dave Burnham, www.esnapsport.wordpress.com.
Slow Start Costly for Terriers Football
ROCKY HILL - After starting a step slow and falling behind 14-0 after seven minutes against Platt Friday, Oct. 10, the Rocky Hill football team knew it had a game on its hands against the Panthers in a CCC interdivision game between two teams who came into the game with 3-1 records.

       With just 2:20 in the record book, Platt put together a six-play, 66-yard drive that culminated in quarterback Joe Mwamba’s 10-yard scoring strike to Cyrick Watford for an early 7-0 lead.

       Platt needed only one play to extend its lead just 4:20 later. Mwamba, who had thrown for 622 yards and 11 TDs coming into the game, found senior speedster Olajuwon McLeod, who cut across the middle to race along the Rocky Hill sideline to score on a 59-yard completion.

       The shell-shocked Terriers regrouped and lit the scoreboard with 1:30 left in the opening quarter. The 10-play drive, led by junior quarterback Ryan Lombardo, featured Grant Nieves and captain Dave Sevigny following blocks from Damon Lonero, Mat Callahan, Jacob LaTorra and Jovan Colon. Freshman Joe Catania found running room behind captain Alex Kocaqi to set up a 25-yard field goal, which Catania calmly converted to make the score 14-3.

       Platt upped its advantage early in the second period on a four-yard scoring burst from senior running back Tyzhan Leatherwood, who closed in on 1,000 yards rushing with a 135-yard effort on 32 carries against the Terriers.

       The Terriers’ response was loud and clear as Catania put the Platt defense on notice with a 34-yard pick up. Bernard Figueroa-Velez and McLeod failed to ground Catania on the drive’s second play and were dragged along the McVicar Field turf before the 5’9” fullback picked up yardage behind Callahan. Catania capped the four-play drive with a 25-yard bolt to the end zone with 3:27 left in the half to make it a 21-10 ball game.

       Platt fired back two minutes later when Leatherwood scored his sixth TD of the year, from two yards out, and Mwamba added the extra point to make it 28-10 at the interval.

       â€"At half time, coach said, ‘Just stay in the game. Keep working as a team and never give up because if we give up, that’s when we fall down.’ We knew that we had to keep on working. We knew that we could get back into this football game and we could win it. That was our mindset,” said Catania.

       â€"We brought the team together and let them know that the mistakes we’d been making were correctable. After we made corrections for the second half and people started doing their jobs, we played much better,” Rocky Hill head coach Mark Fritz said of his team, which returned from the break recharged and ready to take the fight to the Panthers.

       The re-energized Terriers struck hard and fast to open the second half. Catania left four Platt defenders in his wake as he exploited a huge block from Kocaqi to bolt 77 yards to pay dirt on the first play from scrimmage. Catania’s second conversion kick of the night cut the deficit to 28-17.

       â€"Joe is one of the hardest working kids on the team. He shows up every day ready to go. His intensity is unmatched most days. Joe plays fullback and safety. He punts and kicks our extra points. He does everything. When you meet him, you would never guess that he’s a freshman. He’s well spoken, smart, humble and talented,” Fritz said.

       â€"That was all Alex. I wouldn’t have scored if it weren’t for him. It was a great block. He even told me at the end that it was one of his best and I thanked him for it,” commented Catania, who rushed for 177 yards on 18 carries.

       â€"When we need a play, we call on Alex to make it. He’s a leader and a hard worker,” Fritz said of the 6’0” two-way standout.

       Rocky Hill seniors Brian Batalis, Mat Wilkowski, Sevigny and LaTorra, freshman Diamante Baker and Colon, a junior, led a reinvigorated defensive unit that shut out the Panthers over the game’s final 24 minutes to give the Terriers’ offense opportunities for a second-half comeback.

       â€"We asked a lot from Diamante Baker, Will White and Joe Catania--three freshmen who stepped up and played well against a team that likes to throw the ball,” Fritz said of his youthful secondary.

       With Rocky Hill threatening midway through the third quarter and the ball on the Platt 40, the Terriers made the call to go for it on fourth and inches. The Panthers’ defense snuffed out the danger with what head coach Jason Bruenn described as â€"A huge stop. We said, ‘Listen, they’re going to come up the middle and we have to stop them.’ That was picture-perfect stuff on fourth and short.”

       The Platt offense then changed from a passing game that had yielded one complete pass from seven attempts in the second stanza, to a ground-and-pound effort that saw Leatherwood pick up 19 carries over the final 24 minutes of play to run the game clock down to zero.

       â€"We played a lot better in the second half, which says a lot about our kids. They worked very hard and didn’t give up. Tonight’s effort was an A+. We know there are some things we need to work on, but I couldn’t ask for more effort than the team gave tonight,” stated Rocky Hill’s rookie head coach.

       Next up for Rocky Hill is a 7 p.m. meeting with Weaver Friday, Oct. 17, at McVicar Field. â€"They’re a good team with good athletes and are well coached. We have to come ready to play,” said Fritz.
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