New Britain — Coaches of other contending teams in the Class SS state playoff race shared one special point of strategy through much of the regular season: Avoid Joel Barlow in the playoffs as long as possible.

That’s because Barlow and its option offense did the video games thing several times, amassing numbers that frightened the rest of the division.

And the fifth-seeded Falcons churned onward Saturday night, winning the first state title in program history with an exclamation point, pounding Valley/Old Lyme, 61-6, at Arute Field.

“Coach (T.J.) Cavaliere has them coached up really well,” Valley/Old Lyme coach Hill Gbunblee said. “They have an aggressive front four. Their linebackers flow really well. They dominated the line of scrimmage. Give them credit. They played one heck of a game.”

The sixth-seeded Warriors, six days removed from an emotional victory at home in the state semifinals, knew a victory here would largely mean playing mistake free. And there was hope early when its defense forced a fumble inside the 20, thwarting a Barlow drive.

But later in the half, the Warriors surrendered a blocked punt and later fumbled kickoff (before throwing two interceptions in the second half). Valley/Old Lyme’s early mistakes were compounded by Barlow’s 236 yards of first-half rushing offense, behind quarterback Danny Shaban and backs Scott Romano, Cole Peterson and Dylan Taylor.

Barlow, which finished 11-2, took a 7-0 lead with 12 seconds left in the first period on Shaban’s 5-yard touchdown run. Peterson blocked the punt on Valley’s next possession, into the hands of teammate Liam Kiernan, who fell on the ball in the end zone to make it 14-0.

“Those plays were huge,” Gbunblee said. “They changed the momentum. You start the game and get points there and then don’t allow the blocked punt, it changes the feel of the game. After that, we just couldn’t get our run game going and we feed off that.”

Barlow used a 10-play, 93-yard drive to make it 21-0 before the botched kickoff led to Shaban’s five-yard scoring run with 48 seconds left.

Shaban eclipsed 2,000 rushing yards for the season in the second half for the Falcons, who compete in the South-West Conference with fellow 2022 playoff teams Newtown, Masuk, New Fairfield and New Milford.

Valley quarterback Grady Lacourciere finished with 136 passing yards, including a 44-yard completion to Nick Cox in the first half and a 20-yard touchdown pass to Cox in the fourth quarter.

Valley also finished 11-2.

“The kids played their hearts out all season,” Gbunblee said. “They trusted us as coaches. I’m proud of them as individuals and proud of what they accomplished as a team. Tonight, we just came up short.”

m.dimauro@theday.com