Montville — Knowing full well his team was going to be leaning heavily on its defense, especially early this season, Montville High School football coach Tanner Grove got what he wanted Friday night against East Lyme.

The Indians allowed just 73 rushing yards, had a sack, an interception, returned a fumble for a touchdown and didn't allow the Vikings to score in the final seconds on four tries from inside the 5-yard line. Montville won 28-0.

"We knew we were going to have to be ball control and play defense until the offense gets fluid," said Grove, who became the winningest coach in Montville history with 71 career victories. "To play defense that well the whole night, it's excellent. They answered the bell with their backs to the wall, when they're tired, one last time. That's a credit to the kids and the defensive coaches."

Despite their offensive struggles, the Vikings trailed just 7-0 and had the ball to open the second half. But on the second play, Montville's Will Manley stripped the ball from an East Lyme ball carrier and Joe Satiro was there to scoop it up and go 32 yards for a score and a two-score lead.

"I was on the other side and I just saw the ball on the ground," Satiro said. "I just pounced on it. That's all I had to do.

"We were great on defense. Our defensive line killed them. It was great."

East Lyme coach Rudy Bagos didn't expect Montville to dominate the way it did.

"They beat us up pretty good," he said. "We moved the ball pretty well against NFA (last week), but we were not able to adjust to what they were doing (Friday)."

The game stayed 14-0 until the first play of the fourth quarter when Tyler Price, who made a shutout-saving tackle on the game's final drive, took a short pass on a wide receiver screen play and raced 58 yards up the sideline to push the game completely out of reach at 21-0.

Satiro added the final score with a 1-yard run at the 4:50 mark. It capped a 24-carry, 139-yard performance in what was his first start at tailback.

"He's not the flashiest, but he runs hard," Grove said. "He's a real tough kid who gets after it every day. He got his shot this week (Montville's tailbacks lost four fumbles in their first two games) and we just asked him to fall forward and not give up the football. He did more than that."

As for Grove's milestone win, which put him one ahead of Mike Emery, the Indians were glad to finally close the deal.

"We knew about it and we were predicting it last week, and it didn't happen," Manley said. "So we were really happy to get it for him this week."