New London - All they'd have needed to punctuate the joyous bus ride from Coast Guard Academy back to Montville High late Saturday afternoon was Aerosmith providing the musical accompaniment:

"The past is gone

It goes by, like dusk to dawn

Isn't that the way

Everybody's got their dues in life to pay

I know nobody knows

where it comes and where it goes

I know it's everybody's sin

You got to lose to know how to win."

That's from "Dream On," a song title that perhaps a few New Londoners might have considered humming before the game began Saturday at Cadet Memorial Field just loud enough to taunt all the folks wearing orange the next section over. Montville beat New London? Dream on. Montville beat New London? In whose lifetime?

Turns out in Tyler Girard-Floyd's lifetime and Skyler McNair's lifetime and Donte Danztler's lifetime and … you get the point.

You've got to lose to know how to win. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was the heartache from years past. All the bad bounces and blown leads. Maybe it was all the angst from this preseason, too, when news came of their head coach's suspension. Maybe all of it toughened them enough so that enough … was enough.

And so it is true once again that sports are not about mere snapshots, but continuing allegories. What counts today? The Montville Indians have officially won one in a row against New London, a victory that stands to perhaps dull the ache for recent graduates and salute the concept of backbone and persistence.

"I'm pleased beyond all belief," said assistant coach Gary Wilcox, who co-coached the Indians with Rob Alves in the absence of head coach Tanner Grove, who returns this week after a month-long suspension for driving under the influence.

"The kids came such a long way in a short time under adverse conditions," he said. "No other team started out with a negative."

No other team started out with New London, either.

So to recap: No head coach for a month and an opening game against your complete nemesis in front of 3,500 fans who reacted on every play.

To recap more: A 21-0 lead had become 21-19 and here were the Indians folding like a Monopoly board again. Just like last year, when they watched 20-3 become a 28-26 loss. Holy Complications. Was this happening? Really?

It was happening.

The Whalers had moved into Montville territory. Final minutes.

"You hear everyone chirping," Montville senior Tyler Girard-Floyd said. "We had to keep our composure."

Just as they had been all preseason. The same composure that helped them overcome Grove's absence is the same one that led Girard-Floyd to sack New London quarterback Josh Clements with 1:40 remaining to finally, mercifully, end it.

There was nobody on the field to whom the victory meant more than Girard-Floyd, admittedly very close to his head coach, admittedly very wary of the whispers about his game.

The whispers have grown louder. Big reputation, small in big games. Soft. Pretty sad, in a way, that a high school kid gets subjected to that. But that's a rant for another day.

And let the record show that Girard-Floyd played a spectacular game on Saturday. It wasn't the 122 yards rushing as much as dominating the game at defensive end and blocking for his buddy, McNair. Blocking would be one way to describe it, of course. Alves has another.

"I saw him de-cleat people," Alves said.

He wasn't kidding. You want to doubt the kid's game now? Free country. Just go do it somewhere else.

"You hear 'the same thing's going to happen, (number) 40' and 'you should have been a Whaler, 40,'" Girard-Floyd said. "I get it all the time. … I read the blogs. The bets on Facebook, 20 bucks to see who can take out Girard-Floyd's soft behind.'"

And you thought we lived in a, you know, civilized society.

"I'd ask all those people how they're feeling right now," Wilcox said. "I watched that kid demolish some kids today."

He sure did.

And on the way achieved some redemption for himself and his team.

Let the record show that Tanner Grove returns this week. They're a little better than he may remember. And a lot tougher. It starts with No. 40, the big guy with the big game.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.