What Happened
Ansonia led Derby from start to finish in the 55-19, rain-delayed contest at DeFilippo Field and Finn Stadium. The Red Raiders had no answer for Arkeel Newsome, who had over 400 yards of total offense along with four touchdowns of at least 69 yards. When Derby had the ball, its offense and Ray Kreiger struggled to put together full-length drives with the Chargers' pressure into the backfield. Ansonia has now dominated a running team, a defensive team, and a passing team in the first three weeks of the season.
In one of two games that were finished on Friday, Holy Cross pulled a minor upset (not record-wise, but prediction-wise) over Torrington, 19-12. The Crusaders scored all three of their touchdowns in the second half and held the Red Raiders out of the end zone in the final two quarters. Torrington had a couple of late rallies stall and couldn't manage to get down field in the two-minute drill with no timeouts left. Brenden Lytton had over 300 yards rushing, but Jason Abbott completed more passes to Holy Cross (one) than to his own receivers (none). The Crusaders didn't make it pretty again (they were outgained, 357-227) but they're 3-0.
Also on Friday, Seymour rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter and beat Kennedy, 12-6, in overtime. We don't have any stats from the game, but we do know that Jon Wilson tied the game on a 25-yard run in the fourth quarter to send it to overtime. On Kennedy's possession, Josh Tilton intercepted a Kennedy pass to set up Luke Grabowski's game-winning 1-yard touchdown run. As some of our bloggers have said, the Wildcats could very well be the worst 3-0 team in the state, but they're 3-0 nonetheless.
On Saturday, Watertown pulled a mild upset over Wilby in a 22-16 game. The Indians rallied from a 16-7 deficit with just over four minutes to play. Steve Niele threw two touchdown passes to Eric Ford within three minutes of one another to propel Watertown to the win. A key onside kick recovered by the Indians' Pablo Villanueva set up the second score. Wilby falls to 1-2 and both losses have come after the Wildcats led late in the fourth quarter.
As expected, Naugatuck pummeled St. Paul, 33-6. Naugy had over 400 yards of total offense with a near-even split on the ground with Jake Yourison and Mike Schebell and in the air with Zac Mercer. The Greyhounds' defense pitched a shutout for over three quarters before finally giving up a passing touchdown from Logan Marchi to Justin Gonzalez. Naugy is now 3-0 and the Copper Division co-leader.
Wolcott had one of the more surprising showings of the week with a 40-14 crushing of Crosby. Mike Nicol and DeVante Bonvillian each rushed for over 100 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Eagles to their best performance of the season. Bonvillian added two interceptions for good measure, leaving us to wonder what this team really has to offer. Wolcott is a somewhat-surprising 2-1 while Crosby drops to 1-2.
In the final game of the week, Woodland demolished Jonathan Law, 48-10. Sure, it was an SCC Division II opponent, but it still was an SCC squad and a nice victory for the Hawks, who handed the Lawmen their worst loss of the young season. Woodland was very balanced on offense with Matt Zaccagnini's three touchdowns and Tanner Kingsley's two touchdown passes, and the Hawks' defense was superb.
Who Did It
We know Newsome had another phenomenal week, but so did the rest of the Chargers on both sides of the ball. So our NVL Blog Player of the Week honor goes to Holy Cross freshman wide receiver/defensive back Isaiah Wright. He helped the Crusaders rally from a 12-0 halftime deficit by returning the second half's opening kickoff 50 yards, catching two touchdown passes of 16 and 26 yards to tie the game, and sealing the win with an interception on Torrington's final effort on the last drive.
Your list of 100-yard rushers in Week 3: Newsome (380 rush yds, two TD), Lytton (318 rush yds, two TD), Zaccagnini (190 rush yds, three TD), Yourison (180 rush yds, three TD), Bonvillian (126 rush yds, three TD), Nicol (114 rush yds, three TD), and Watertown's Anthony Avoletta (106 rush yds).
Kreiger (12-31, 222 pass yds, two TD), Mercer (8-12, 180 pass yds, TD), Marchi (7-20, 145 pass yds, TD), and Kingsley (10-12, 110 pass yds, two TD) were the only quarterbacks who threw for over 100 yards but Ansonia's Elliot Chudwick threw three touchdowns while Niele and Holy Cross' Zach Brown both tossed two touchdowns.
Gonzalez (145 rec yds, TD) and Derby's Brian Dobek (123 rec yds, two TD) were the league's two 100-yard receivers. Holy Cross' Isaiah Wright also hauled in five passes for 90 yards and two TD while Ford had the two late touchdown catches for Watertown.
By the way, it's embarrassing in 2011 how few teams post their stats on MaxPreps (or even call them fully into the Rep-Am). We know there must be more players who qualify in the above categories but we don't know because half the teams don't post their stats for whatever reason. Why? No idea.
How It Looked
Remmy and his camera braved the elements on Friday and Saturday to get some nice footage of the Ansonia-Derby game. (Viewer discretion is advised for Raiders fans.)
The Rep-Am and others also had a few bits of multimedia to check out.
Photos: Torrington-Holy Cross, Crosby-Wolcott
Video: Torrington-Holy Cross, Woodland-Jonathan Law
What's Next
Holy Cross (3-0) will visit Ansonia (3-0) at Jarvis Stadium in Week 4, a game that could be one of our final matchups between undefeated teams this season. The Crusaders will look to gain some revenge on the shutout they experienced last season in Ansonia, but it's going to be more than a tough task to do that against a red-hot Chargers squad.
We also thought that Thursday night's Derby-Wilby game at Municipal Stadium might have been the most important Brass Division game of the week, but it looks like that honor will go to Friday's Seymour-Wolcott game at Joe Monroe Field in a battle for second place in the division.
Our predictions thread and weekly videos will be up on Monday night!
