Deep River — Tim King, head coach at Valley Regional/Old Lyme, was musing about the talent on the Cromwell/Portland cooperative football team after Friday’s game when he started to chuckle.

“My God, number 71 (Anthony Puntiel) ... he’s one of the biggest high school kids I’ve seen in my life,” King said of the Panthers’ 6-foot-6, 340 pound lineman. “That kid was a monster.”

Cromwell/Portland has the kind of players one does not want to make mistakes against, and the Warriors made far too many of them. The Panthers gladly took advantage and turned a match-up between two unbeaten Pequot League teams into a 48-26 butt-kicking.

Kristian Sapp ran 23 time for 179 yards and three touchdowns for Cromwell/Portland (3-0).

Matt Sapere ran for a 15-yard touchdown for Valley/Old Lyme (3-1). He also threw touchdown passes to Garrett Burdick (6 yards) and Ernest Jean-Pierre (56 yards).

The Warriors' first big mistake came with the game tied at 7 midway through the second quarter. They had a second-and-7 from the Panthers’ 14-yard line.

The ball was snapped early and went sailing 19 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The Warriors were forced to punt two plays later.

It took Cromwell/Portland just five plays to make Valley/Old Lyme pay. Sapp ran for a 42-yard touchdown to give the Panthers a 14-7 edge with 5 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half.

"(It) killed us,” King said. “You’ve got to call it the way it is. That was a 14-point swing. That’s a case where we have them backed up. … (We could’ve taken) a field goal because three points there, the way Garrett was kicking the ball. That was huge.”

The Warriors’ second big mistake came moments later when they turned the ball over at their own 19. It set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Kittrell Lauray as the Panthers went ahead 20-7 with 3:12 left in the half.

And then came the ensuing kickoff. Cromwell/Portland squibbed it, the ball bounced off a Valley/Old Lyme player, and the Panthers recovered it at the Warriors’ 44.

Sapp scored on a 13-yard touchdown three players later to push Cromwell/Portland’s edge to 28-7 with 2:51 to play in the first half.

Burdick gave the Warriors some hope by returning the ensuing kickoff for a 75-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 28-13.

The second half, however, began with an outstanding play by the Panthers’ Jon Siena. … and more breakdowns by Valley/Old Lyme.

Siena fielded the ball by the Warriors’ sideline, slipped a few tackles, and raced down the sideline for an 82-yard kickoff return.

“That one really hurt,” King said. “I thought going into halftime that we had a little bit of momentum. The kids were kind of pumped up coming out. That kickoff just killed us. We had (Siena) in the corner, and we just didn’t tackle.”

n.griffen@theday.com