Each week GOOD Morning Wilton will run news of recent results and scores submitted by Wilton Youth sports teams. Please send all stories and updates, along with a photo to editor@goodmorningwilton.com by noon on Monday of each week. Stories received after the deadline may not be included. Results write-ups will be grouped by sport and published in the order they are received.
Wilton Youth Football–Playoffs
Wilton 6th Grade Warriors Follow 6-2 Regular Season with Championship Loss to New Canaan Black, 7-28
The 6th Grade Wilton Warriors capped off another very successful season with a trip to Norwalk for the championship game against New Canaan Black. After a 6-2 regular season record and convincing wins against New Canaan Red in the quarterfinals and Stamford in the semis, Wilton headed to the finals with good momentum. Unfortunately, they fell to New Canaan Black 7-28 in the final game.
The offense got going with productive runs by Kieran Wiseman, Craig O’Neill, and Charlie Calabrese, and a pass from Calabrese to Charlie Roy. The defense also made its presence known early with a big tackle on fourth down by Alan Osta and Curtis Jackson. On Wilton’s second drive the team struck first as Calabrese connected with Jake Padilla for a 50-yard pass play for a touch down where he broke several tackles on the way to the end zone. After a Mason Behar extra point, the team went up 7-0.
While the subsequent three quarters proved to be tough with the ball not bouncing the Warriors’ way, the team fought until the final bell sounded and never gave up. Despite coming up a bit short at the end, this team had a great season and showed a lot of toughness from wire to wire.
The unflappable Calabrese was at the center of it all orchestrating many successful drives with his passing, physical runs, and always calm demeanor behind center. The running backs including O’Neill, Padilla, Wiseman, Cooper Buchichio and Emma Van Heyst added many explosive runs in addition to well executed blocking. The wide receivers lead by Roy, Theo Satrazemis, and Trevien Goldman made many high quality catches, some of which ended in the end zone.
The linemen on both sides of the ball deserve a ton of credit for blocking and tackling in the trenches–Max Totten, Jackson, Marco Chila, Brendan Morris, Conor McAndrews, Josh Meltzer, Hunter Lishnoff, Cayden Stevens, Evan Christianson, Wiseman, Roy, and Trevor Galligan, who also helped the offense with his deft snapping. Linebackers Blake Ongley, Osta, Padilla, O’Neill, and Calabrese anchored the stingy defense causing havoc against opposing offenses, while safety/cornerbacks Will Byrnes, Van Heyst, Behar and Buchichio prevented many big gains. And of course Patch Angerame led the team in spirit and in the final formation.
Wilton closed another very successful season in the books thanks to a great group of kids and also in huge part to the amazing coaching staff consisting of coaches Chris Calabrese, Jeff Herlyn, Mark McAndrews, Jerry Padilla, Bert Pykosz, Asterios Satrazemis, Rick Tomasetti and John Wiseman.
Head coach Calabrese summed it up perfectly: “I would not have wanted to do it with any other players or coaches.”
(photo above: Wilton 6 gets ready for the Championship game against NC Black)
Wilton 7th Grade Blue loses Championship game to Fairfield Black, 0-14
In a rematch of a scoreless tie game from earlier in the season, the Warriors faced a tough Fairfield team in the 7th grade Championship game on Saturday. The game was similar–a defensive battle that went scoreless until the last four minutes of the game, when Fairfield finally broke through.
The Wilton offense had success moving the ball behind a strong performance from the offensive line of Maja Driscoll, Cole Siegel, Cole Galante, Jack Huntley, Liam McKiernan, Henry Soojian, Jaxon Thomas and CJ Young. The Warriors moved the ball between the 20’s, with tough running from Cael Dexter, Jack Schwartz, Liam Snyder, Ray Ferranti, Emmett Kane and Charlie Keller, but the Fairfield defense was effective at keeping Wilton from crossing the goal line. The offense missed Luke Ginsburg who has been hurt since week three, but has been with the team every step of the way supporting his teammates on the sidelines.
On defense, the Warriors put together another great game. Every member of the team contributed on defense, swarming the ball and consistently helping each other contain the Fairfield attack. Great quarterback pressure from Siegel and Driscoll; key tackling from Ryan Luchetta, Schwartz, Snyder, Dexter and Ferranti, and great pass defense from Ethan Bailey, Will Cristini, Galante and Kane. Fairfield finally broke through with a score with four minutes to go in the game, and then added another as time wound down.
Despite the loss, this was another great season for a terrific group of boys and coaches. They finished with their only loss coming in the Championship game. This is a team that has always prepared well and they will surely take the lessons from this loss into the offseason as they look to get that Championship back next year.