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Howdy,

Fitch had a bye week after a 13-8 loss to New London on Sept. 29 … and it's a good thing.

“I think it took 'em about a week to get over losing to New London,” coach Mike Ellis said of the Falcons, who rebounded with a defense-fueled 23-6 victory Friday night over Wilbur Cross. “That stung them. That stung us.

“The bye week last year, we came off of beating NFA. The kids were high. The kids were on fire going through stuff. This year it took a few days to get back. We had to sit and live with that for a couple of weeks.”

The week leading into the Wilbur Cross game was better, though, Ellis said.

The Falcons, who rushed for 441 yards in a win over Waterford on Sept. 21, worked on utilizing a few things to loosen up defenses, which are now packing the line of scrimmage against them.

Fitch gave the ball to fullbacks Mike Hamlin and James Deichler a little bit more.

The Falcons also threw deep a couple times, taking a shot.

“I was less tentative on offense. Stop trying to call the perfect play and just get first downs,” Ellis said. “We threw the ball down field more. That helped loosen things up a little bit. We had to get back to going after it, stop trying to be perfect.”

The fullbacks were effective, making the defense collapse to meet them. Hamlin had a 22-yard touchdown run to close the scoring in the first half, giving Fitch a 21-6 lead, and he caught a pair of passes from quarterback Tyler Nelli.

“They had 11 guys close to the line,” Ellis said. “You've got to hit a seam and hurt them with that. Hit that seam and get them to the second level. If they're not going to keep someone deep, we're going to get you with that. That's what we've got to do.

“Hopefully we have enough in the tank to get better and better.”

Meanwhile, the Fitch defense put on a show against the Governors, including nose guard Nick Helbig, who accounted for a pair of safeties in the game, one on a blocked punt and one on a sack in the end zone.

Helbig had 11 tackles, seven solo, with two sacks and four tackles for a loss, as Fitch limited Wilbur Cross to 37 yards offense, 33 passing and four rushing. The Governors had 31 carries for four yards.

Linebacker Noah Charron added five tackles and a sack for the Falcons (3-2). Dan Mojica and Daniel Brathwaite each added a tackle for a loss.

“Our defense has been very steady,” Ellis said. “They have done this to a lot of teams along the way. They held Hamden under 100. Waterford had 101. That's what's been keeping us going.” 

• • • •

It was frustrating enough for Norwich Free Academy that it was hammered by Newtown on Saturday, 51-14, during Homecoming Weekend.

It was doubly frustrating for NFA that it wasted so many chances.

The Wildcats turned it over four times, leading to 17 points by Newtown.

NFA had the speed advantage and its receivers were seeing ample space by the Nighthawks to catch quick passes for gains of several yards or more from Elijah Parker.

The Wildcats kept undermining their gains, however. Parker threw an interception on first-and-10 from the Newtown 41-yard line late in the first half.

NFA took the opening drive of the second half across midfield and had a third-and-1 at the Newtown 38. The Nighthawks defense held and turned the Wildcats over on downs.

NFA fumbled the ball away at the Newtown 26 late in the third quarter, too.

“There were a lot of opportunities out there,” Wildcats head coach Jason Bakoulis said. “We were able to move the ball and make some plays, but you have to finish. We didn’t finish.”

Parker completed 21 of 28 passes for 218 yards with three interceptions and scored on a 12-yard run for NFA (3-2).

Nolan Molkenthin had five catches for 56 yards, Kevin Pomroy had five catches for 45 yards, and Andrew Cote had four catches for 84 yards for the Wildcats.

• • • •

While East Lyme is off to a 1-4 start, the Vikings are 1-1 against Eastern Connecticut Conference competition and 0-1 in Division I with a 41-26 loss to NFA on Sept. 28.

“Granted we’re 1-4 but we’re still in position to possibly win the ECC Large (Div. I),’’ said East Lyme coach Rudy Bagos.

East Lyme hosts Ledyard Friday and has games against Division I foes New London (Oct. 26) and Fitch (Nov. 9) and plays Waterford on Thanksgiving. The only nonleague game left for the Vikings is on Nov. 15 at Branford, and the Southern Connecticut Conference team is off to a 4-1 start.

East Lyme’s 34-11 loss to Weston of the South-West Conference on Friday night follows a 42-41, overtime loss to Pomperaug of the SCC on Sept. 14 and a 41-24 loss to Norwalk of the powerful Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference to open the season on Sept. 7.

“I still would never change the schedule,’’ said Bagos. “I like the schedule. I like the competition and I think it’s good for the kids. And it’s going to help us for the second half of the season.’’

• • • •

The ECC held its own in the first season of its scheduling alliance with the Southern Connecticut Conference and South-West Conference last year.

The second season was a catastrophe for the ECC.

The ECC had another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend against the SCC and SWC. It went 1-4 this weekend in the final week of crossovers with Fitch being the lone winner. The lowlight was New London losing at home to winless Hillhouse last Friday, 26-7, followed by the teams getting into a postgame brawl.

The ECC went 1-7 in its SCC and SWC crossovers in Week 2.

Even if one included NFA’s opening night win over Xavier of the SCC, the ECC still had an alarming and abysmal showing.

Not good.

The SCC went 20-8, and the SWC 10-13 this season.

The ECC went 5-5 last year.

• • • •

Thanks to Dave Davidson Davis (East Lyme-Weston) and Vickie Fulkerson (Fitch-Wilbur Cross) for their contributions to this here Polecat.

• • • •

That's all for now. We encourage you to please check out the Lonesome Polecat's state varient, which should be unleashed either Monday night or very early Tuesday morning.

We also invite you to listen to the Lonesome Podcat, an audio companion to the Lonesome Polecat blog that is generally released on Monday nights.

Thanks for reading.

Adios