East Lyme — Finally, the sons of Fitch got to hear the words "victory formation" during a high school football game. Some of the players counted down the final seconds Friday night. Smiles, hugs, exhales, and some joy.

Finally.

It was not easy, this 27-7 victory within the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division over East Lyme that snapped a 14-game losing streak. Not easy at all. It wobbled and jiggled a few times in the second half, score tied at seven for much of it. And yet last week, when tenuous moments in the game produced doubt, this time they produced resolve.

"This feels great," quarterback Rob Duncan said. "You can't worry about losing streaks and whether we'd win again. You've just got to keep playing and go for it. We had to keep telling ourselves, 'don't give up.'" Keep the negativity out."

Fitch's defense not only kept the negativity out, but East Lyme out of the end zone on four different occasions that turned the game. East Lyme had the ball inside the Fitch 30 four times — twice in the third period with the game tied — and didn't score.

"Our defense swarmed to the ball pretty well," said Fitch coach Mike Ellis, in his second game at his new school. "We were giving them great field position a couple of times and the defense came up big. We bent quite a bit but didn't let the big play out of the gate."

Instead, the big play came late in the third period for the Falcons (1-1, 1-0). Duncan, who completed 8 of 12 passes for 191 yards, got 44 of them to senior Luke Letellier, whose run to the 28-yard line set up Duncan's two-yard touchdown run.

"My line gave me so much time on that throw," Duncan said. "It was perfect."

Letellier caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Duncan early in the fourth period before Jonathon Johnston, who scored Fitch's first touchdown on a 13-yard run, scored again from two yards out.

"There are things we knew that would be difficult," Ellis said. "What we didn't know was how mentally fragile they were. And that's where you give them a lot of credit. Last week under the lights, they lost it and they lost the game. Tonight, they started to lose it, but they held it together. It was an improvement. We still have a long way to go. This is going to come down to how well we hold our composure."

Josh Bowman scored on a 2-yard run for the Vikings (0-2, 0-2). Sophomore quarterback Dylan Hatajik finished 6-for-17 for 121 yards.

"I tip my hat to Fitch and Mike Ellis. They did a great job," East Lyme coach Rudy Bagos said. "But we shot ourselves in the foot. I have a feeling that's going to be a recurring theme this year. I don't know what else to do. We get down there and we hold, drop a pitch, fumble ... It's tough right now. It's not always because we're young. The seniors are doing this too."

m.dimauro@theday.com

Twitter:@BCgenius