A bittersweet victory for Ledyard

Ledyard — There were signs of Matt Buriak everywhere on Thursday, from Ledyard High School football coach Jim Buonocore's green sweatshirt to the pins with Buriak's photo on them on Ledyard's assistant coaches to the green ribbons adorning the heads of the Ledyard cheerleaders.

And when it was all over and the Colonels had honored their fallen teammate with a 35-6 win over Fitch on Thanksgiving, the truest sign was that every single one of the Ledyard players, out of their jerseys and shoulder pads, were wearing a No. 23 t-shirt to honor Buriak, their teammate who passed away on Tuesday.

They lingered long after the game was over, smiling and reminiscing, taking photos with family, friends and fans and enjoying a true community moment that kept on lasting.

"The one thing I've found is that Ledyard is just a wonderful community," said Buonocore, who is in his second year at the school and led the Colonels to the Class M championship game a year ago. "They're tight-knit. People care about each other. People have each other's backs. You're seeing the strength of this community come out in full force in the face of a very difficult situation. I'm proud to be the football coach here and I'm proud to be a part of this."

The Colonels (7-3) led 7-0 at halftime when senior captain A.J. Wilcox made his voice heard over some bickering among teammates.

"I just reminded them what this game was about," Wilcox said. "It's not about us. It's about our fallen friend. We played this game for Matt because it's something he can't do anymore. Matt had a bigger hand in my halftime speech than I did."

Ledyard's Brandon Brisbois recovered a Fitch fumble on the second-half kickoff and, four plays later, Zeke Torres scored his second touchdown of the game on a 17-yard run.

After the Colonels forced a punt, Ledyard went on a 14-play, 88-yard drive capped off by a 3-yard scoring run from Shane Sullivan, who later scored on a 34-yard run.

Torres finished Ledyard's scoring with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Troy Powell with three minutes left in the fourth quarter. The ball was deflected and went through the hands of a Fitch defender before Torres caught it.

"Matty was right here on that play," said Buonocore, pointing to his back. "That was him all the way."

Sullivan finished with 140 yards on the ground — 136 in the second half — while Torres added 107 rushing yards.

Torres' first touchdown came on a 58-yard run on a third-and-17 play in the first quarter.

"We've become over the last month, month and a half, a very good running football team," Buonocore said. "Our offensive line has gotten better each and every week. But we also knew, going into that third-down situation, what the defense would be expecting. Who would have thought we'd have run it on third-and-17? (Fitch) certainly didn't."

Buonocore was quick to thank his assistant coaches following the win.

"I wasn't getting through this alone, leading these kids down here today," he said. "I have a great coaching staff. We easily could be playing (a playoff game) on Tuesday. I'd have no problem taking this team to go play anyone in the state right now."

Bobby Johnson ran for 77 yards for Fitch (7-3), and Eric Riley scored on a 64-yard touchdown pass from Derek Baldoz on the Falcons' final offensive play of the game.

"This was tough," Fitch coach Mike Emery said. "My wife is very good friends with Matt's mother (Roberta), which made it doubly tough. I don't know whether it was the emotion of everything, but we should have been able to bounce back (after the turnover to start the second half) and we didn't."

Sullivan, Ledyard's emotional leader, said he had never experienced as difficult a week as the one leading up to Thursday's game.

"This is the toughest thing I've ever been through in my life," he said. "To persevere like this, it's great. Everything from class to friends to practice to coaches, everyone's been so emotional. When we went to the Buriaks' house (on Wednesday), Mr. Buriak asked us all do to one thing and that was to go out and win this game. We all took that to heart."

o.poole@theday.com