East Lyme — Norwich coach Josh Howarth and his team knew East Lyme liked to throw; East Lyme quarterback Noah Perry had 30 touchdown passes to his credit entering Sunday's championship game among two unbeaten 14-and-under youth football teams.

“They have one of the best offenses in the league,” Howarth said. “They throw the ball all over the place. We knew we just had to put pressure on them.”

And that's what Norwich brought, pressure, making it difficult for the Vikings to throw, catch and even causing some problems in them snapping the ball. That led to East Lyme's defense being on the field for the bulk of the second half, trying to defend Norwich's high-powered single wing offense.

In the end, Norwich won Sunday's Southern New England Youth Football Conference 14U Super Bowl 28-8, breaking open a game which was tied 8-8 at halftime after East Lyme's Perry threw touchdown pass No. 31.

Geremiah Ballinger rushed 23 times for 161 yards and a touchdown, caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Austin Richards and Norwich got the go-ahead touchdown from its defense with 9 minutes, 48 seconds to play when Sean Wolchesky recovered a bad snap in the end zone.

“We worked hard,” Ballinger said. “We got what we wanted.”

Silas Gates added 14 carries for 70 yards for Norwich, which lost last year's 12-and-under championship to Griswold.

“We had to stop making mistakes, we made a lot of mistakes in the first half, and start playing Wildcat football,” Howarth said. “I knew if we continued to play Wildcat football, we wouldn't have any problem. We settled in after halftime. … These guys who were on the junior team last year had a sour taste in their mouths.”

All four league championship games were played Sunday at East Lyme, with a sizable crowd ringing the field by the time the Senior Division final got underway. East Lyme and Norwich each finished 10-0 during the regular season and added a pair of playoff victories.

East Lyme scored first on an 11-yard pass from Perry to Sophie Dubreuil and the extra points made it 8-0.

Norwich got on the scoreboard with a safety at the 7:32 mark of the second quarter, which was set up by a 48-yard punt from Ballinger which pinned East Lyme back at its own 1-yard line.

Norwich then got the ball back at midfield and drove down the field to tie the game 8-8, making up for a holding penalty with the touchdown pass from Richards to Ballinger in the left-hand corner of the end zone.

East Lyme took over deep in its own territory again to start the fourth quarter and this time a bad snap resulted in a touchdown for Norwich, making it 14-8, the beginning of the Wildcats' 20 unanswered points in the final period.

Norwich added another safety, a 17-yard touchdown run by Ballinger and a 1-yard run by Damien Bleau.

“They had a big blitz,” East Lyme coach Dave Perry said. “We couldn't get in synch. Norwich is a great team. … I'm proud of the kids. I'm proud they got to play on their home field. The last time an East Lyme team made it this far in seniors was 2002 and the last time I know of that a team won was 1980.

“… I thought (Noah Perry's touchdown to Dubreuil) was how it was going to go.”

Perry said it was an honor to coach Dubreuil at the close of her youth football career, not because she's a girl playing on a boys' team, but because she's an exceptional three-sport athlete (baseball, basketball, football). Just on Perry's team, Dubreuil returned punts Sunday, was the long snapper on field goals and extra points, was one of the Vikings' leading tacklers from her position at safety and caught three passes for 28 yards. She was also East Lyme's emergency quarterback.

Dubreuil has told Perry she won't pursue football in high school, but he thinks she'd compete there, too.

“I've been around her since she was 5 years old,” Perry said. “She's a once-in-a-lifetime player.”

In other championship games Sunday, Killingly won the Junior Division (12U) title over New London 28-8, Groton-Mystic took the Micro (10U) championship 40-22 over Ledyard and New London won the Pee Wee (8U) title 32-7 over Griswold.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday