Howdy,

One of the most important players in Friday's CIAC Class S championship game barely comes up to most people's shoulders.

If you saw Dave DiGiorgi walking through the mall, you wouldn't for a second think he's a football player.

Sure, DiGiorgi has a strong frame packed into his 185-pounds, but he lacks the height one expects from the sport. He's all of 5-foot-6.

Put DiGiorgi on the football field and the Holy Cross of Waterbury senior is either going to wiggle past a defender, fight through an arm tackle, or truck a linebacker.

DiGiorgi put on a masterful showing in his final high school game. He ran 30 times for 314 yards and four touchdowns and added a team-high six solo tackles at linebacker as the Crusaders survived a scare to beat Cromwell, 34-27, to win the program's second state title.

Asked how he ran for such numbers, DiGiorgi said matter-of-factly, "I don't even know. … I just ran hard."

John Cullen of the Waterbury Republican-American compared DiGiorgi to Maurice Jones-Drew, the Jacksonville Jaguars' small but stout star tailback.

"Thank you," DiGiorgi laughed. "It's my (offensive) line. Again, they give me a great push."

Holy Cross senior Ryan Byrne said, "(He's a) wrecking ball. We know no matter what that that kid will take us home as long as he's got the ball."

Byrne had a big hand in the win, intercepting a pass at the Crusaders' goal line with seconds left in the game for the win.

"I knew no matter what if we needed a big play, we'd step up," Bryne said. "Hey, you've got to be confident in what you're doing."

DiGiorgi, meanwhile, had done a lot of everything up to that point.

Early in the second quarter, Cromwell had fourth-and-3 from the Holy Cross 13. It trailed, 20-14.

Derrick Villard ran for a yard before DiGiorgi brought him down.

"He's got the biggest heart I know," Holy Cross coach Mike Giampetruzzi said. "For four years, we knew Dave's that type of player. And you know what — tonight he had it in his eyes before the game. You knew he was going to leave everything out on the field. He did that tonight."

Holy Cross trailed 21-20 late in the third quarter. DiGiorgi ran seven straight times for 51 yards down to the Panthers' 14.

DiGiorgi scored on a 5-yard run early in the fourth quarter to give the Crusaders' back the lead, 27-21.

Cromwell scored on its next possession to tie the game with oer seven minutes left.

The Crusaders had a second-and-8 from the Panthers 47 when DiGiorgi got the handoff, ran into one of his lineman, bounced outside to his right, slipped a tackle and ran 19 yards with a Cromwell defender trying to drag him down by his jersey.

"He's low to the ground," Giampetruzzi said. "He's very strong, and he doesn't go down after first contact. He always goes forward. He has the knack for doing it. He can take a lot of hits. He can take a lot of abuse and keep battling."

Quarterback Zach Brown scored two plays later on a 23-yard keeper.

Holy Cross was trying to run out the clock late in the game when DiGiorgi broke off back-to-back runs of 32 and 10 yards to get the ball down to the Cromwell 2.

The Crusaders fumbled the ball away on its next play, but, hey, no damage was done in the end.

DiGiorgi's big night was made possible by Holy Cross's offensive line of center George Smith, guards Mitchell Szyndlar and Andrew Pennacchio, tackles Justin Bartolomeo and Chris Grimshaw, tight end Thomas Rinaldi and fullback Nick Gambacini.

One other thing about DiGiorgi — he ran 131 times for 747 yards and nine touchdowns during nine regular season games.

DiGiorgi ran 67 times for 630 yards and seven touchdowns in three playoff games.

"State championship time, he turned up his game," Giampetruzzi said. "We knew from the (quarterfinal) we played Haddam-Killingworth that he was going to want the ball. And you know what — we kept feeding it to him, and he taken it and run.

"We won a state championship with him."

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Cromwell's performance was too good to get lost in the Holy Cross shuffle.

Anthony Morales had a record-setting night for his team in a losing cause. He completed 14 of 25 passes for 323 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. In the process, he set Connecticut's single-season passing records for yardage (3,688) and touchdowns (43).

Derrick Villard ran 28 times for 164 yards and three touchdowns for the Panthers. He finished the season with 2,128 yards rushing.

The Connecticut High School State Record Book doesn't list every 2,000-yard rusher. It lists 29 players for most rushing yards in a season, the last of which is Tolland's Mike Gallic (2,022 yards, 2006).

It stands to reason, however, that Cromwell is the first team in state history with a 3,000-yard passer and 2,000-yard rusher.

Connecticut didn't have anyone throw for more than 3,000 yards until Southington's Dan Bruetsch did so in 1999 (3,263 yards). The explosion of the passing game last decade has changed the way teams play offense.

Over half of the 2,000-yard rushers listed in the Record Book made the playoffs did so with teams that played at least two playoff games, too. The CIAC added a semifinal round in 1995, and quarterfinals last year.

Unofficially, the Panthers had 6,493 yards. That would also be a state-record as its 927 more yards than St. Joseph of Trumbull had last year when it set the mark.

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One player who put up outrageous rushing totals without the benefit of playoffs — Tim Washington of Bristol Central.

In 2000, Washington ran 342 times for 3,005 yards in 10 games. That's the state's fourth-highest rushing total in a season.

The next year, Washington ran for 2,711 yards (on 340 carries) in another 10 game-season.

Washington was listed as a quarterback, but he was more like a single wing tailback, or the kind of running quarterbacks one sees in today's spread offenses.

A few more of Washington's ridiculous statistical accomplishments:

■ Most consecutive 100-yard rushing games (25).

■ Second in state career rushing yards (7,712).

■ Ran for 449 and 424 yards in separate games. That would be fourth and sixth, respectively, for the most rushing yards for in a single game.

■ Second in career touchdowns (101).

■ Tied for third with Greenwich's Jim Henry for most touchdowns in a season (42).

■ Second in career-points (710).

■ Second (294) and fifth (260) all-time for most points in a season.

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Keep a close count on Arkeel Newsome's rushing yardage in today's Class M final.

The Ansonia sophomore has rushed for 3,399 yards and needs 198 more to break the state's single-season record, set in 2007 by former Charger Alex Thomas.

Something else that the Republican-American was first to pick up on — Newsome is currently fifth in MaxPrep's national rushing leaders and could take the lead with 281 yards.

Joseph Sadler is the current leader. He ran for 3,680 yards in 13 games for Devine (Texas).

There's no telling if Newsome would finish as the national rushing leader for two reasons. One is that not every team reports their stats to MaxPreps.

Secondly, Johnathan Gray of Aledo, Texas, was third nationally prior to Friday night's Class 4A Division II semifinal win over Corsicana, 68-28. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram credited the University of Texas recruit with 218 yards, which would give him 3,665 yards with one game left.

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One last thing about Holy Cross — its defense bailed it out during the first half.

Cromwell went for it on fourth down four times that half and didn't score. In one instance, the defense stopped on back-to-back plays.

The Crusaders held Cromwell for no gain on fourth-and-6, but a face mask penalty gave the Panthers fourth-and-one and another shot.

Holy Cross held them again to no gain.

Cromwell's drives ended at the Crusaders' 13, 13 and 9.

See you later today at The Runway.

Vaya con dios.