Each week, GOOD Morning Wilton will run news of weekend sports results from Wilton Youth Teams. Please send all stories and updates to editor@goodmorningwilton.com by noon on Monday of each week.
Wilton 8-White 20, New Canaan Red 6
The Wilton 8th grade youth football Warriors defeated the New Canaan Red team 20-6 on Halloween Day, Saturday, Oct. 31. The Warriors brought their own version of Trick-or-Treat to Dunning Stadium on Saturday that left the New Canaan team grasping at straws as they tried to stop the powerful Wilton team.
Saturday marked the beginning of the league’s playoffs and the Warriors , who had been hampered with injuries all season, came ready to play. New Canaan drew first blood with a touchdown following a fumble recovery deep in Wilton territory. The ensuing extra point attempt failed. That missed extra point proved to be prescient as New Canaan did not score again.
Wilton responded on the next series of downs with a couple of very strong runs by Jack DiRocco followed by an amazing pass play where QB Luke Mercer connected with wide receiver Tucker Walden for a 70-yd. touchdown. Mercer kicked the extra point that put the Warriors ahead for good.
The Warrior defense stopped New Canaan on the next series of downs, forcing a punt that was returned 50-yds. by Drew Phillips for a touchdown. Mercer kicked the extra point to make the score 14-6 where it stayed until the fourth quarter. With 01:35 left in the game and New Canaan threatening to score, Phillips intercepted a pass with the kind of athleticism worthy of OBJ. Wilton’s offense took over and Phillips took a hand off from scrimmage, breaking tackle after tackle as he ran 65 yds. for Wilton’s third touchdown.
After New Canaan got the ball back with less than a minute left, linebacker Griffin Morris intercepted a New Canaan pass to seal the Wilton victory.
This Wilton team has struggled with injuries all season. Instead of getting down or quitting, the boys on this team all stepped up to play unfamiliar positions and have become the very definition of a team. Kudos to the coaches for keeping these guys focused. This is a fine group of young men who all deserve mention. Barrett Brown, Patrick Burke, Jack DiRocco, R2 DiRocco, Matt Dooley, Camilo Galeano, Ryan Kauffman, John Kauffman, Stephen Kendra, Niko Kouvaris, Luke Mercer, Griffin Morris, Drew Phillips, Jack Santomero, Ciaran Smith, Cole Snyder, Tucker Walden, Nish Wangneo, James Wright and Jake Zeyher.
The young Warriors continue their championship quest against Westport on Sunday, Nov. 8.
Wilton U9 Blue Boys 6, Fairfield Boys Blue Thunder 1
The U9 Boys Blue team had a very successful outing versus the Fairfield Blue Thunder squad at Jennings Elementary school in Fairfield on Sunday, Nov 1.
Stefano Cross played the first half in goal and did an excellent job turning away several Fairfield breakaways and shots. The defense in the first half was led by Maddox Backman, Matt DeMasi, Grady Kaliski and Samik Soi. James Cameron came through with a scoring penalty kick during the tough first half and Fairfield also scored one goal in the first half, leaving the score tied 1-1 midway through the match.
In the second half Mason Andrews played in goal and he fought off several Fairfield charges, including a couple of hard point-blank shots. Evan Lalor and Will Soucy also showed a lot of grit in the midfield contributing both on offense and defense. Cross scored two goals in the second half followed by one goal by Danny Aravena and yet another by Cameron. The sixth and final goal was scored by Backman via a nice shot with about five minutes left, to bring the final score to 6-1 in Wilton’s favor.
The five-goal second half would not have been possible without the tenacious midfield play of Curt Brichkowski and Luke Perna, who also had some shots on goal during this game.
Wilton 7-White 24, Darien 0
After finishing the regular season with a 4-1-2 record, the Wilton White 7th grade team earned the fourth seed in the rugged AFC division entering the playoffs. This brought Darien to town for a first round playoff matchup.
The ferocious Wilton defense, which led the league in points given up, started the day strong. A shared sack by Matt Gulbin and Connor Quinn and a QB pressure by Howie Long quickly brought out the Darien punting team. Unfortunately Wilton’s defense was right back on the field after a fumbled punt return. This gave the ball to Darien in Wilton territory. Darien moved the ball to the Wilton 35 before a John Stanley tackle behind the line of scrimmage squashed their drive.
It was finally time for the Wilton offense to take the field. Stanley, Trevor Martines and Sean Sullivan quickly moved the ball down the field with successive runs over 10 yds. each. While the drive stalled at the Darien 20, Wilton had taken over the field position game. After another Darien three-and-out, Wilton took the ball over on the Darien 37.
On this drive Wilton took over the trenches. Sullivan scampered 25 yds. on a huge hole opened up by Gulbin, Christian Theoharides, Brendan Quinn and Michael Coffey. A quarterback sneak by Stanley between Gulbin and Michael Burton finished the drive and put Wilton up 6-0. Ryan van Heyst made it 8-0 with a 2-point kick through the uprights.
After another Darien three-and-out, Wilton took the ball at their own 45. On the second play of the drive, Martines knifed through the Darien defense for a 50-yd. touchdown run. Another van Heyst kick gave Wilton a 16-0 lead. A Long sack gave Wilton the ball back with less than a minute on the clock. A promising drive led by two Davis Cote receptions ran out of time and Wilton brought a 16-0 halftime lead to the locker room.
Wilton took the second half kick off and used a strong running game to control the ball for the entire third quarter. While the drive stalled short of the end zone, Wilton had eaten valuable clock and left Darien with poor field position. Martines stripped the ball on Darien’s first play from scrimmage in the 4th quarter and Gulbin recovered. A 12-yd. run by Martines and a van Heyst kick made it 24-0 Wilton.
The Wilton special teams and defense were able to maintain the shutout on a Brian Curley punt pinning Darien inside their 10-yd. line, timely sacks by Simon Alexander, Coffey and Evan Kauh and a strong pass defense led by Quinn Wiseman and Matthew Goldstein.
Wilton moves on to the second round with a convincing 24-0 victory.