Groton — The Norwich Free Academy football team was in a hole and close to losing on Friday night.

Sophomore quarterback Jayden Desilus and senior receiver Andrew Cote helped the Wildcats not only win the game, but keep their longshot CIAC Class LL playoff hopes alive.

The duo hooked up three times on NFA’s game-winning drive, including plays on third and fourth down. They set up senior Xavier Marquez for a game-winning 3-yard touchdown run with 2 minutes, 14 seconds left as NFA rallied for a 33-29 win in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I game.

The game ended with a Fitch incompletion from the Wildcats’ 16-yard line.

NFA (4-3, 2-0) scored the game’s final 12 points. That happened after the Falcons scored 19 unanswered points late in the third quarter to take a 29-21 lead with 11:17 remaining.

“I’m just proud of him,” Wildcats head coach Jason Bakoulis said about Desilus. “The entire offense, they had a moment where things weren’t going as planned and they didn’t give up, and obviously it allowed us to win this football game.”

The Wildcats started the game-winning drive on their own 16 with 6:55 remaining.

Desilus threw a screen to Cote on third-and-11, who took it for a 20-yard gain and a first down.

“I was a little nervous, but I know we could convert on those,” Desilus said. “We worked on them all week at practice.”

NFA had a fourth-and-4 at the Fitch 14. Desilus and Cote hooked up again for an 11-yard gain. Marquez scored the next play.

Desilus completed 18 of 30 passes for 228 yards with three touchdowns and scored on a 2-yard run. Cote caught eight passes for 130 yard and a score.

Maxon Pierre-Louis (17 yards) and Nolan Molkenthin (36 yards) also caught touchdowns passes for NFA. Nate Cote added a fumble recovery and DeJean Jarmon had an interception.

The Wildcats have a shot to qualify for the postseason, but it won’t be easy — only five three-loss teams have qualified for the LL playoffs since the CIAC went to a four-division, eight-team playoff format in 2010 (an eight division, four-team format was used in 2014).

NFA’s final three regular-season games are at home against Killingly next Friday, at Bacon Academy (Saturday, Nov. 16), and back home again against New London (Wednesday, Nov. 27).

Josh Letellier completed 8 of 18 passes for 124 yards and ran 16 times for 91 yards and a touchdown for Fitch (3-4, 0-2). Noah Charron had four catches for 69 yards, Evan Burdy kicked a 22-yard field goal, Brian Toussaint and Lashier Edwards both recovered fumbles, and Seamus McKenna had an interception.

“Wild football game,” Fitch head coach Mike Ellis said. “You have to give both teams a lot of credit. Both played hard. Both teams made some bad plays that they were able to overcome.”

The loss all but ends the Falcons’ shot at a Class L playoff berth because only one four-loss team has ever qualified for states since the CIAC started the playoffs in 1976 (Law, Class M, 2017).

Fitch rallied trailing 21-10 late in the third quarter. It took the lead by scoring 19 points in 1:58.

Greg Santora blocked an NFA punt and Landon Huffstickler returned it for a 7-yard touchdown as Fitch cut its deficit to 21-17 with 2:48 left in the quarter.

Two plays later, Lashier Edwards scooped up a backwards pass for a 28-yard fumble return to put the Falcons ahead, 23-21, with 2:04 remaining in the quarter. The extra point failed.

Fitch struck a few plays later again on special teams. A botched snap gave it the ball at the NFA 1-yard line.

James Deichler ran for a touchdown on the next play to push the Falcons lead to 29-21 with 50.6 left in the period. The conversion again failed.

The Falcons seemed to have stopped NFA’s next drive to end the third quarter but were called for roughing the kicker.

The Wildcats capitalized with Desilus throwing a 36-yard touchdown to Molkenthin with 11:17 left in the game to cut the deficit to 29-27. The conversion failed.

The Falcons had a chance to go back ahead by at least eight points on their next drive but were hurt by another careless penalty. Letellier was stopped at the NFA 1 on third down and, after the play, Fitch was called for a personal foul.

The Falcons were backed up to the Wildcats’ 16 and turned it over on downs with 6:55 remaining in the game.

“What (the game) really came down to was us not scoring on the 1-yard line,” Ellis said. “We score on the 1-yard line, the game is over. We’ve got it. You have to execute when you’re on the 1. We didn’t do it, and they came down and made that play at the end.”

n.griffen@theday.com