Week 1 in review
It was an exciting first week of the football season locally, and a very successful one for local teams. The only team to lose was Southington, a defeat against New Jersey power Bergen Catholic which can certainly be excused. Other than that, there were two clear impressive wins for teams I wasn't sure what to expect from.
Berlin and Newington are the big winners, with solid scores over Ledyard and Hall respectively. The word on the street now is that Max DeLorenzo is something to watch at Berlin. As just a sophomore he showed an ability to completely take over a game. That's bad news for other teams.
And I was at the Newington win, and they looked surprisingly strong considering that few of their key players had much role in the offense last year at all. But Shane Leupold lived up to the expectations I had for him, at least this week, with 153 receiving yards and three touchdowns, not to count two interceptions.
My players of the week, the ones who impressed me the most from what I saw, were Newington quarterback Spencer Parker and Southington QB Josh Lamson, for similar reasons. Both will be critical to their team's success, and both stepped into difficult situations and played well, clearly in control of the offense.
Lamson led an opening drive touchdown for Southington to take an early lead on Bergen, and played well at times against a very physical defense the rest of the way. Parker looked unafraid to tuck the ball and run, accumulating 107 yards on the ground against Hall, and also threw for the three TDs to Leupold. While he needs to take better care of the ball when he runs (he has a habit of extending his arms as he ducks in and out of defenders), that aggressiveness and fearlessness will pay huge dividends.
I wasn't there, but I heard there was a very impressive day for Wethersfield QB Tyler Murphy against East Hartford, and of course DeLorenzo.
Rocky Hill also looked strong in shutting out Stonington, and defensive coach Jeff Perillo was very pleased when I saw him at the Newington game on Saturday. On a side note, I had failed previously to notice that the Terriers are in Class SS this year. While New London made the leap up from Class S with them and is a clear favorite in the division, that bodes much better for a potential playoff trip than another year in talent loaded S.
Congratulations as well to Plainville, which made winning look easy against SMSA. I hope the Devils can get a couple more this year, but the road will definitely get tougher.
As for my picks, I guess I underestimated some teams. I was wrong about both Berlin and Farmington (which blew away E.O. Smith in what was said to be a sloppy game). New Britain made things much closer against Conard than I expected, but got the win, and everything else pretty much went as I expected. I went 5-3 on the week and lost my featured state game when Xavier easily beat Northwest Catholic.
Berlin and Newington are the big winners, with solid scores over Ledyard and Hall respectively. The word on the street now is that Max DeLorenzo is something to watch at Berlin. As just a sophomore he showed an ability to completely take over a game. That's bad news for other teams.
And I was at the Newington win, and they looked surprisingly strong considering that few of their key players had much role in the offense last year at all. But Shane Leupold lived up to the expectations I had for him, at least this week, with 153 receiving yards and three touchdowns, not to count two interceptions.
My players of the week, the ones who impressed me the most from what I saw, were Newington quarterback Spencer Parker and Southington QB Josh Lamson, for similar reasons. Both will be critical to their team's success, and both stepped into difficult situations and played well, clearly in control of the offense.
Lamson led an opening drive touchdown for Southington to take an early lead on Bergen, and played well at times against a very physical defense the rest of the way. Parker looked unafraid to tuck the ball and run, accumulating 107 yards on the ground against Hall, and also threw for the three TDs to Leupold. While he needs to take better care of the ball when he runs (he has a habit of extending his arms as he ducks in and out of defenders), that aggressiveness and fearlessness will pay huge dividends.
I wasn't there, but I heard there was a very impressive day for Wethersfield QB Tyler Murphy against East Hartford, and of course DeLorenzo.
Rocky Hill also looked strong in shutting out Stonington, and defensive coach Jeff Perillo was very pleased when I saw him at the Newington game on Saturday. On a side note, I had failed previously to notice that the Terriers are in Class SS this year. While New London made the leap up from Class S with them and is a clear favorite in the division, that bodes much better for a potential playoff trip than another year in talent loaded S.
Congratulations as well to Plainville, which made winning look easy against SMSA. I hope the Devils can get a couple more this year, but the road will definitely get tougher.
As for my picks, I guess I underestimated some teams. I was wrong about both Berlin and Farmington (which blew away E.O. Smith in what was said to be a sloppy game). New Britain made things much closer against Conard than I expected, but got the win, and everything else pretty much went as I expected. I went 5-3 on the week and lost my featured state game when Xavier easily beat Northwest Catholic.
Labels: football
posted by Ryan Pipke at
2:50 AM
2 Comments:
Berlin at Plainville this week...It should be a interesting matchup. "Rocky" has his kids determined and are fundamentally sound. The strentgh of Berlin up front will be what is in question against Plainvilles' inexperenced and young line.
Time has run out for Jude Kelly. at SP
If he can't win with the best New Britain player since Tebucky then he should sell apples at the festival in the town he has forsaken. .
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