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| Joan Toribio had another great performance on the ground for Torrington as the Red Raiders beat Sacred Heart and kept their outside chances at a Class L playoff berth alive. Credit: Michael Kabelka/Rep-Am |
In the meantime, we have an NVL Championship to which we can look forward.
What Happened
Ansonia crushed Wilby and Holy Cross cruised past St. Paul as the NVL's only two teams to be surely in the playoffs solidified their bids to host quarterfinals. Both teams are playing as well as they have all season, and we'll get to see them go at it on Thursday night at Municipal Stadium. There will be plenty more on this game for the rest of the week.
Wolcott earned a huge win over Woodland to stay in the hunt for a Class M playoff berth. The Eagles didn't necessarily dominate the game, but they made the big plays when they needed to. Wolcott will clinch the school's first playoff spot with a win over Holy Cross on Thanksgiving, but it also might slip in with a loss and a little help. A loss would likely mean no better than the No. 8 seed, though, which means a date with Ansonia.
The Hawks and Seymour both were eliminated from the Class S playoff race with disappointing losses in which they held fourth-quarter leads. Woodland allowed too many big plays in its loss to Wolcott while Seymour gave up 15 points in the last 30 seconds of the game to lose to Watertown. Now, their Thanksgiving eve meeting means nothing except bragging rights.
Torrington kept its barely flickering Class L playoff hopes alive with a blowout of Sacred Heart. A playoff bid still seems extremely unlikely unless chaos ensues over the next week and a half. Still, an 8-2 season would be highly impressive.
In other games, Naugatuck crushed Kennedy and Derby beat up on Crosby. Both of those teams will be heavy underdogs against playoff contenders on Thanksgiving.
Who Did It
Our NVL Blog Player of the Week for Week 9 is Holy Cross running back Adrian Brown. He had 18 rushes for 342 yards and four touchdowns in the Crusaders' big win over St. Paul. He has picked up a lot of the offensive slack for Holy Cross over the last few weeks.
Week 9's top rushers: Adrian Brown (Holy Cross) 18 rush, 342 yds, 4 TD; Brenden Lytton (Torrington) 33 rush, 269 yds, 3 TD; Matt Zaccagnini (Woodland) 36 rush, 248 yds, 3 TD; Joan Toribio (Torrington) 24 rush, 243 yds, 4 TD; Anthony Avoletta (Watertown) 23 rush, 229 yds, 2 TD; Jake Yourison (Naugatuck) 17 rush, 188 yds, 3 TD; Jon Wilson (Seymour) 17 rush, 143 yds, 2 TD; Marcel Lugo (Crosby) 17 rush, 131 yds; Dave DiGiorgi (Holy Cross) 11 rush, 114 yds, TD; Arkeel Newsome (Ansonia) 7 rush, 107 yds, 3 TD; Tyshon Rogers (Crosby) 13 rush, 84 yds, 3 TD
Week 9's top passers: Logan Marchi (St. Paul) 28-48, 374 yds, TD; Mike Nicol (Wolcott) 12-22, 197 yds, 3 TD; Javon Martin (Sacred Heart) 10-19, 170 yds, 4 TD; Marcel Lugo (Crosby) 7-19, 155 yds, 2 TD, INT; Luke Grabowski (Seymour) 13-24, 140 yds, TD, 4 INT; Elliot Chudwick (Ansonia) 5-7, 107 yds, 2 TD; Ray Kreiger (Derby) 5 TD
Week 9's top receivers: Justin Gonzalez (St. Paul) 13 rec, 255 yds; Tyshon Rogers (Crosby) 6 rec, 119 yds, TD; Dillon McMahon (Derby) 3 TD
How It Looked
Remmy took some video from the Ansonia-Wilby game, so check out the highlights here. As always, we feature some multimedia provided by our friends at the local media outlets.
Videos: Naugatuck-Kennedy, Sacred Heart-Torrington
Photos: Crosby-Derby, Sacred Heart-Torrington, Wolcott-Woodland
What's Next
Well, the NVL Championship is Thursday. That means the NVL Blog Tailgate Party and BBQ is also Thursday. We hope you will join us.
We will preview the game with a breakdown on Tuesday morning. Hopefully we will also have the Predictions Tracker updated before then.
