East Lyme clinches playoff berth ... and gets home game, too

Waterford — East Lyme High School beat rival Waterford on Thanksgiving Day, 42-0.

The Vikings scored three touchdowns in under a minute, and 35 of those points came in the final 9 minutes, 24 seconds of the first half.

You read that right.

"We're such a team full of emotion that once we get that ball rolling, it's hard to stop it," East Lyme's Kevin Miao said. "It's going to be funny to look at the box score with the '0' (for the first quarter) and 35."

Said teammate Jacob Grills: "How did we swing things like that?"

The win earned the Vikings (9-1) the second seed in the CIAC MM state football playoffs and a home semifinal next Tuesday against No. 3 Vinal Tech/Coginchaug (6:30 p.m.)

"To be playing past Thanksgiving is just an honor," Miao said.

East Lyme squandered a game's worth of great field position in the first quarter. It began drives at the Waterford 27, 30 and 20-yard line.

Those three drives stalled at the Waterford 11, 5 and 15.

"In the red zone, we're usually pretty efficient," Miao said. "I have to give it to Waterford. They were in the backfield a lot today. There were some big plays, but there were also a lot of plays where we were getting hit 2-or-3 yards behind the line."

Said Vikings coach Paul Tenaglia: "We shot ourselves in the foot. We had excellent field position the whole first quarter."

Early in the second quarter, East Lyme had a third-and-4 at its own 49 when Tenaglia called timeout. The Vikings were flagged for a false start before they ran a play, so Tenaglia called another.

"We just needed to get our act together," East Lyme's Jacob Grills.

Grills connected with Eric McGlone for a 56-yard touchdown on the next play.

"That (Waterford) defense was not in the right defense that we wanted," Tenaglia said. "The short routes they had covered pretty well and they had it covered right then.

"I hate wasting those timeouts so quickly, but it was justified."

The touchdown pass was the start of something good for the Vikings. ... and the beginning of the end for the Lancers (2-8).

"When you take a look at East Lyme and what they try to do, they're running power and belly and trying to jam the ball down the field," Lancers coach Mike Ellis said. "They had to go to the pass, and that's what we wanted them to do.

"Now when they did that, we had trouble defending that. But we got them doing what we wanted them to do."

James Geary recovered the ensuing kickoff at the Waterford 14 when the Lancers couldn't field the kickoff.

Two plays later, Miao scored on a 3-yard run.

Waterford turned it over on its next offensive play.

Miao scored on the next play — a 34-yard run. He finished with 122 yards on 18 carries and was named his team's game MVP.

"The second quarter, all of the sudden, it just collapsed on us," Ellis said.

Geary had a 52-yard interception return to give the Vikings a 35-0 lead with 2:28 left in the half.

Jordan McCoy scored on a 16-yard pass from Grills late in the third quarter. Grills was 7 of 13 for 144 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

Waterford was held to 84 yards. Senior Ryan Hesney was named his team's game MVP.

East Lyme is making its first postseason appearance since 2005.

"As I told the kids (Wednesday) night, 'The best is yet to come'," Tenaglia said.

n.griffen@theday.com