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11/26/2016 11:00 PMThe East Haven football team forced four turnovers to defeat rival Branford 14-0 in the annual Beehive Bowl contest on Thanksgiving Day at Crisafi Field. It was the 75th meeting between the teams and the win put East Haven’s final record at 5-5 for the season, while trimming Branford’s lead in the series to 38-33-4. The Yellowjackets won their last three games of the year to finish with a .500 record.
“We had a great opportunity to finish .500. The seniors on this team faced a lot of adversity before we got here and were looking forward to finish the season by winning,” said Head Coach Melvin Wells, whose team has defeated Branford in three of the last four seasons. “Leaving out of here with back-to-back non-losing seasons, it’s great, and it hasn’t been done around here in nearly 20 years, so we’re really pleased with that.”
The Branford win also wrapped up East Haven’s record at 4-2 in SCC Tier 3 games this season, putting the Yellowjackets into a tie for second place with Law.
“When you talk about high notes, that’s as high as we’ve finished in our existence, so we were satisfied,” Wells said. “We understand that developing this program is going to be a growing progress and it’s going to take time. The kids did the things we wanted them to do in these last three weeks and that was a lot of fun.”
Last season, East Haven missed a chance to qualify for the State Playoffs by taking a 10-7 defeat to Branford. As a result, the Yellowjackets were determined to come back and beat the Hornets this year.
“That was definitely a focal point during the course of the week. We know records don’t matter in a game like this, but the fact they turned us away last year was a real motivating factor for the kids this week. It can get real difficult to focus and our kids did a great job of that,” Coach Wells said. “Everybody kind of dug in a little bit and focused a bit more to do things the right way. The kids were focused, under control, and did all the things they needed to do to accomplish their goal. We were really pleased with the kids’ performance over the last three weeks. It’s easy to lay down and quit, but during no time of the season did the kids consider calling this season a wash. It’s really a big tribute to them and their maturity.”
Defense was the story of the game for East Haven in its Thanksgiving triumph versus Branford. Even though the Hornets totaled more than 300 yards of offense, the Yellowjackets picked off Branford quarterback Griffin Lynch four times and kept the opposition out of the end zone.
“The defense did a great job carrying out the game-plan. We really wanted to work hard on taking away their inside running back and not letting the receivers go deep. They played in front of us with check-downs, which was OK, but once they got to the red zone, we made a football play to turn the ball over or create a stop,” Wells said. “In the last two weeks, the kids had nine interceptions. It’s great for our defense and that’s the sort of stuff you try to hang your hat on moving forward to next year. With the youth, sometimes it takes a little to figure it out. They’ve done it and we seem to have it going, so we’re happy about that.”
Following an interception by Andrew Luzzi in the second quarter, Jay Donaldson (122 yards rushing) found the end zone from 16 yards out to put East Haven ahead 7-0. Donaldson later picked off Lynch to give East Haven possession at the Branford 36-yard line. Six plays later, McClay Marshall (107 yards rushing) completed a halfback pass to Luis Torres in the corner of the end zone for a 43-yard score right before the end of the half to make it 14-0.
The Yellowjackets’ offense had some chances to put more points on the board in the second half, but a few fumbles prevented East Haven from scoring again. The 14-point lead was enough, though, as the Easties’ defense didn’t allow Branford to reach the red zone once in the second half.
“We moved the ball pretty well, but we fumbled twice in the red zone, but that’s part of football,” Wells said. “We really felt like we had everything going in the right direction yesterday. It really turned out to be a great day to play.”
• The three senior captains for East Haven this season were Jose Campos, Niam Coward, and McClay Marshall.
• Wins for the Yellowjackets this year came against Sheehan (35-27), Lyman Hall (44-12), Guilford (23-15), McMahon (29-10), and Branford (14-0).
• East Haven lost to Law (26-21), Hand (35-0), Hamden (30-24), Foran (31-7), and Creed-Career-Whitney (20-17) this season.