Howdy,

Tim King, the 20-year head coach of the Valley Regional/Old Lyme co-op, mentioned to his team during Friday’s postgame huddle that he’s been tough on quarterback Michael Cullina.

“I’ve been riding him like Seabiscuit,” a joking King said.

King wanted to give a game ball to all of his Warriors after they edged previously unbeaten Cromwell/Portland 34-28 in overtime, but he gave the one he had in hand to Cullina.

Cullina completed 10 of 18 passes for 213 yards and four touchdowns for Valley/Old Lyme (6-1, 5-1 Pequot Sassacus). He kept the game’s final play alive by scrambling and avoiding tackles before throwing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jason O’Brien.

Valley/Old Lyme had a second-and-10 from its own 25-yard line midway through the fourth quarter in which Cullina should’ve been sacked at least twice. He kept slipping out of tackles, however, rolled towards the Panthers’ sideline, and threw a 22-yard completion to a wide-open Blair Allen.

“A lot of (my criticism) has been about his decision-making,” King said about Cullina. “A couple of times against North Branford, we had enough for a first down (if he threw a short pass), but he went for a deep incompletion. I’ve been trying to sink into his mind to take what the defense gives you. I’d rather have five or six yards and move the chains, or five or six yards and put us in second-and-4, instead of a downfield incompletion.”

“In his defense, he has some pretty good athletes out there, and you saw them tonight. Ernest (Jean-Pierre) is not bad. And Jason (O’Brien) is not bad. All of our other receivers are not bad. So I can see why he has the confidence in those kids, but you’ve got to play within the game.”

Jean-Pierre, in particular, was fantastic against Cromwell/Portland. He had four catches for 143 yards and a touchdown. That included a diving 37-yard catch to the Panthers’ 8 late in the third quarter. Cole Ensinger ran for a touchdown on the next play to give the Warriors a 28-20 lead.

“I’ve been riding him pretty good, and he’s responded really well,” King said. “That’s why he got a game ball tonight.”

Cullina is also a bit of a rarity in that he also plays middle linebacker. That’s pretty uncommon as most teams that have players going both ways will put the quarterback at defensive back.

“He’s a tough kid,” King said. “There’s not too many mike backers that are at (QB). … So he’s a pretty special kid.”

• • • •

East Lyme and NFA both dealt with significant injuries during the Wildcats' 27-21 win Friday.

NFA sophomore receiver Nolan Molkenthin was knocked out with what coach Jason Bakoulis said was a broken collarbone. That injury likely ends his season as it requires 10 to 12 weeks to heal, according to the Johns Hopkins University website.

Molkenthin had become one of the Wildcats’ most valuable receivers this season, starting with him catching a game-winning 15-yard TD pass from Shea McManaway with 15 seconds left in a 40-37 season-opening win over Xavier (Sept. 9).

McManaway sat out two possessions in the fourth quarter after he appeared to be shaken up scoring on a 4-yard run. His touchdown gave NFA a 20-7 lead.

“Due to the score, I was out for precautionary reasons,” McManaway said. “As you could see, I went back in the game so I was perfectly fine.”

Sophomore Austin Richards came in at quarterback and went 2-for-4 for 34 yards and led the Wildcats on a TD drive that made it 27-7.

McManaway finshed 18 of 32 with 229 yards and a touchdown.

East Lyme was without two starting linemen, limiting what it could do offensively.

“It’s never an excuse, but we had some injuries,” Vikings coach Rudy Bagos said. “We’re starting two sophomores at guard and tackle. And you’re throwing them into the fire. They’re better at run blocking than the pass blocking. So we had to play to our strengths for a little bit. We had to throw when we had to. Those sophomores played terrific, though.”

East Lyme has a bye week to heal and still has a shot for a share of the ECC Division I title.

“We learned a pretty good lesson tonight,” Bagos said. “Hopefully, it helps us and carries us in two weeks when we play Fitch.

“I was telling the kids, we’re 5-2. We can still play for a share of the ECC title. If you told me that in the beginning of the year, I’d say I’d take it, absolutely. I’m still happy. It hurts to lose. Obviously, I feel bad for the kids. They’ve worked hard. … We learned a lesson tonight. The good thing is, we still can play for something. There’s still an outside shot at the (Class L) tournament, so that’s good.”

• • • •

Stonington coach A.J. Massengale had to go with a plan B in Friday's game against Waterford.

Wingbacks Kevin Ferrer and Riley Burnside were banged up in a Week 7 35-0 loss to NFA, so the Bears went with a twin-fullback backfield of senior Jon Humphrey and junior Nate Miller.

"We've actually been working on that offense and we gave a lot of attention to that this week,'' said Massengale.

It worked.

Humphrey, 6-foot-3 and 268 pounds, ran for 98 yards and a touchdown, including a 57-yard burst up the middle midway through the fourth quarter. And Miller, 5-10 and 220, gained 100 yards in the 27-8 win.

Miller is part of Stonington's usual rotation in the double wing. But Humphrey, mainly a center in the past, is being employed so many ways that he was two different uniform numbers. He's worn 74 for the much the season as a lineman, but donned the 45 jersey Friday night for his backfield duties.

"He was our center last year,'' said Massengale. "He's a smart kid and a very good athlete. He is literally a center, tackle, tight end and running back for us. He's done all those things in the last seven days.''

• • • •

Montville coach Tanner Grove and his wife Erika became parents at 8:51 Friday morning at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital. The couple had been at the hospital since early Thursday morning, when Erika went into labor.

By the time Grove’s team beat Ledyard on Friday night, 21-7, he had a new daughter, Adley Elizabeth Grove, but hadn’t slept since Wednesday.

“Twenty-one inches, 8 pounds, 11 ounces for the numbers people,” Grove said. “… I like to be in control of everything; I had no control. It’s tough to have zero control.”

Grove said when he left the hospital to head for the game, Erika told him, “beat Ledyard.”

“I wasn’t sure if it was the Percoset talking or if she was really serious,” he said with a laugh. “But we did it.”

• • • •

The game within the game during Fitch's 33-20 win over New London on Friday was the matchup between the ECC’s most prolific receiver to date (New London’s Gio Lopez, 11 touchdown receptions) and Fitch corner Justice Farris, also among the best in the ECC.

Farris’ mom, Mary, even had some “Farris Island” T-shirts and sweatshirts printed at Crystal Mall. The family wore them proudly Friday night.

The matchup: about even. Lopez made a leaping catch with Farris defending him late in the second quarter and caught a late touchdown pass with the game decided.

“One of the things I thought we did well tonight was contain the slant (pattern),” Ellis said. “New London loves that play and we did a nice job taking it away.”

• • • •

Waterford has suffered growing pains this season, as Lancers coach John Strecker has been forced to play a lot of sophomores due to heavy graduation losses from last season. But a new problem reared its head in Friday's 27-8 loss to Stonington.

Nine penalties didn't help as Waterford dropped to 0-6.

"It's hard to overcome that many penalties,'' said Strecker.

The Lancers were called for holding five times, offsides twice, had a personal foul and were flagged for a delay of game.

"We haven't been penalized that much all year, that was an aberration,'' said Strecker. "I don't know what that was about. I have no explanation for that.''

• • • •

There are Eastern Connecticut Conference schools who have taken a “pick on someone your own size” towards NFA, one of the state’s largest schools.

The Wildcats seem to be fine with it.

Four of NFA’s 10 games are non-conference this year against Class LL or L schools. It was basically an associate member of the Southern Connecticut Conference’s Tier 1 halfway through five games as it played at Xavier, vs. Cheshire (a 35-29 loss), and at West Haven (35-28).

“Playing those difficult teams like Cheshire, Xavier, West Haven has prepared us for the season,” McManaway said. “We played against some great-caliber teams and there was a lot difficulty going on but also brought a lot of adversity our way, so it was good.”

NFA has the state's fourth-largest boys enrollment (1,134), according to the CIAC's website. To put that in perspective, Fitch has the ECC's second-largest boys enrollment at 548.

The ECC only guarantees six games to Division I schools like Wildcats (4-3). That includes four division games. The other two games are against Division II teams. Crossovers against Division III teams are forbidden unless the schools agree to it, such as Killingly being willing to play East Lyme and New London this season. Or Windham facing Ledyard and Fitch.

The Wildcats were given crossovers against Stonington and Waterford. Massengale had his offense take a knee with five minutes left in its Oct. 21 loss to NFA and said afterwards that his Class S team wouldn’t play the Wildcats again.

NFA hosts to Waterford on Friday.

NFA has one non-conference game left at Class L power Windsor (Nov. 16).

“It just makes our guys understand that they have to work every single day,” Bakoulis said of his team’s beefed up schedule. “(You) can’t have a day off.”

“I absolutely love the schedule. Our players love the schedule, our coaches love the schedule, the school loves the schedule. And we’ll keep the schedule like that for a long as we can. Our guys love it. Our guys love the competition. They love to compete.”

• • • •

Stonington, despite being 2-4, is in position to win the ECC Division II title. The Bears, who shared the title in the four-team division last year with Montville and Waterford, assured themselves of at least a share with Friday's 27-8 win over Waterford and a Sept. 29 win over Montville.

The title will be all theirs with a win over Bacon Academy on Nov. 9. Stonington also has games against Griswold (Nov. 3), Thames River (Nov. 16) and its Thanksgiving Day game with Westerly.

"After coming off a tough season so far, these wins mean a lot for us,'' said Stonington junior Riley Burnside. "And Thanksgiving is ridiculously important. We need to win that day no matter what.''

• • • •

Montville quarterback Ryan Douchette, a 5-6 sophomore, had a big night against Ledyard for his first career victory. It was just his second start after being moved up from the junior varsity.

Douchette had 14 carries for 100 yards and two touchdowns to help the Indians (3-4) break a four-game losing streak.

Grove paid the QB the ultimate compliment, calling him “a gamer.”

“The lights go on and he just competes,” Grove said. “It’s his second start of the season. Against Ledyard. Here it is. Go.

“Ryan’s a great young football player in terms of knowledge of the game. He spends a ton of time on his Hudl account (used to review video), hour after hour after hour. … We lost Gennaro Davis, our leading scorer, early when he was playing quarterback on a Wildcat series, and Ryan still went out and played.”

• • • •

New London coach Juan Roman was searching for answers following his team’s loss to Fitch. It has been a familiar position for Roman, whose team is an unfamiliar 1-6. But that didn’t stop him from recognizing the achievements from the other bench.

"I’m happy for Mike Ellis,” Roman said of the Fitch coach, whose team is 7-0 and atop Division I of the ECC. “I don’t recall anyone throwing confetti when he was hired here. But you watch them on film and they are very sound. He’s done a great job.”

• • • •

Montville got 34 yards rushing and a touchdown from 5-5 junior running back Emmanuel Mayfield. Before scoring on a 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to push the Montville lead back to two scores, Mayfield carried five times on the drive, including a 6-yard pickup on second-and-6. “He took the momentum away from them,” Grove said. “He just moved the chains. You could feel the energy from him.” … Freshman kicker Diego Garces-Cortes made all three extra points for Montville. … Ledyard’s Jacob Foster had an interception on Montville’s first play of the second half. … After Ledyard scored in the third quarter to pull within 14-7, the Colonels’ onside kick was recovered by Montville’s Zack Navarrette.

Several Fitch football alumni were in the crowd, a testament to the team's success thus far this year. Brian Hopkins, a 1994 grad who works in the banking industry in New York, was on hand as well as 1994 graduate Greg Drab, who runs Advantage Personal Training in Mystic. The game drew 1,800 fans to Dorr Field, the largest of the season.

• • • •

For your planning purposes, YOUR Week 9 schedule: Bacon Academy (3-4) at Ledyard (2-5); New London (1-6) at Montville (3-4); Rockville (0-7) at Valley Regional/Old Lyme; Stonington (2-4) at Griswold (5-2); Thames River (3-3, 3-3 Connecticut Technical Conference) at Platt Tech (2-5, 2-3); and Waterford (0-6) at NFA (4-3). All games are Friday at 6:30 p.m.

• • • •

Muchas gracias to Dave Davis (Stonington-Waterford), Mike DiMauro (Fitch-New London), Vickie Fulkerson (Montville-Ledyard) and Gavin Keefe (East Lyme-NFA) for their contributions to this here blog.

• • • •

Thanks for reading. More soon.

Adios.