East Lyme — In theory, an athlete is supposed to be focused on his or her job and tune everything else out while competing.

Fitch senior Ben Perry couldn’t help but hear the announcement over the public address system after one quarter of Friday’s game against East Lyme, though, when he learned that Norwich Free Academy had just knocked off Woodstock Academy, 21-17.

That meant that the Falcons, holding the tiebreaker over NFA because of their head-to-head win on Sept. 30, 44-32, could win the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I football title with a win.

“I was like, ‘okay, now we’ve got to finish the job,’” Perry said.

Fitch did just that as it jumped out to a 14-point lead and went on to beat the Vikings, 34-20, to win the ECC Division I title and keep its faint state playoff hopes alive.

The four ECC Division I teams began Friday in a tie for the title with identical 1-1 records.

Fitch (5-4, 2-1), was unbeaten in division play prior to last last Saturday’s game at Woodstock, but lost to the Centaurs 38-22.

“We were definitely discouraged,” Perry said. “A lot of us had our heads hanging down this week but the guys pulled through and played great.”

The Vikings (4-5, 1-2) could have won the title with a win and an NFA loss.

Both teams went into the game banged up and dressed just over 30 players each.

In the case of Fitch, it had to overcome an injury to senior Melakai Maddox who, as its starting fullback, had been the engine driving its triple option offense.

The Falcons had several players do just a little bit more to make up for Maddox’s absence. Junior Adonis Fine ran for a 111 yards with two touchdowns on just four carries.

Senior Kevin Saintvill-Ravix had nine carries for 66 yards, classmate Charles Cabusao ran for a 10-yard touchdown and Perry scored on a 1-yard run for Fitch.

Senior Naszier Matthews played a big role in the first half for the Falcons filling in at fullback, too. He bullied his way for 51 yards and a touchdown on just five carries on his team’s first two drives. He finished with 77 yards on 10 carries.

“He’s been in the (fullback) rotation the whole season,” Perry said. “We were just waiting for the right time to bring him out and today was perfect. … Hopefully we get to see a little more of that.”

East Lyme was without the left side of its offensive line along with junior Aidan Patterson, the Vikings’ shifty tailback and most explosive player.

They compensated by switching to a wing-T offense, the same offense head coach Rudy Bagos played in as the starting quarterback for Ledyard’s first state championship team under the late Bill Mignualt in 1986.

Senior Thabian Riley shouldered a majority of the load for East Lyme as he had a game-high 22 carries for 111 yards with a touchdown.

Senior Jackson Hart, a bruiser, ran eight times for 68 yards and two scores. He also had a fumble to set up a touchdown.

Matthews ran for a 16-yard touchdown to give the Falcons a 6-0 lead with 5 minutes, 50 seconds left in the first quarter. The extra point failed.

Fitch pooched the ensuing kickoff and recovered it at the Vikings’ 43. Fine scored on a 33-yard run on the fifth play and Perry threw a conversion pass to Saintvill-Ravix to push their team’s lead to 14-0 with 2:50 left in the first quarter.

“It’s a tribute to our kids how hard they played,” Fitch head coach Mike Ellis said about his team overcoming injuries. “I’m very happy for them.”

n.griffen@theday.com