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12/09/2016 11:00 PMThe Valley Regional-Old Lyme football squad had a great season that saw the Warriors win 10 games, including one in the Class M State Playoffs, to advance to a semifinal showdown against St. Joseph. Unfortunately, that was where the team’s season ended as Valley-Old Lyme took a 28-7 defeat to the Cadets in Deep River on Dec. 5.
Following a scoreless first half, the Warriors struck for the game’s first touchdown when Matt Sapere threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Jason O’Brien early in the third quarter. However, St. Joseph immediately came back with a touchdown and then took advantage of a few Valley miscues to score two more times in the third on its way to the victory. The top-seeded Warriors finished the season with a record of 10-2, while No. 5 St. Joseph improved to 10-2 before losing to Hillhouse 42-21 in the Class M final.
Head Coach Tim King felt that St. Joseph’s depth played a critical role in the outcome. With such a large team, the Cadets were able to use many players exclusively on either offense or defense, instead of having them play on both sides of the ball. This enabled St. Joseph to stay fresh throughout the game and went a long way toward the Cadets gaining control of the contest in the second half.
“They pretty much just wore us down,” Coach King said. “The bottom line is that our kids fought throughout the whole game, tooth and nail, but there comes a time when you have to be a realist, and they had more bodies than us. They just outmanned us.”
Valley’s best scoring opportunity in the first half came after O’Brien intercepted St. Joseph quarterback Cory Babineau, giving the Warriors the ball at the Cadets’ 9-yard line. Valley eventually faced fourth down and brought on Garrett Burdick for a field goal, but the 29-yard try was no good. St. Joseph missed a 30-yard field goal late in the first half and so the game remained scoreless at halftime.
On the first drive of the second half, Babineau found Jared Mallozzi for a 45-yard pass to the Valley 19, but the Warriors forced a fumble, and Cody Stalls recovered it for Valley. On the next play, Sapere threw a pass 25 yards over the middle to O’Brien and the sophomore sprinted all the way home for a 64-yard touchdown pass. Burdick kicked the extra point and Valley led 7-0 just 56 seconds into the second half. St. Joseph came right back to tie the game on its next drive on Babineau’s 21-yard strike to Mallozzi that made it 7-7 with 7:17 left in the third.
The Warriors were backed up on their subsequent series, forced to punt, and St. Joseph blocked the punt to take control at Valley’s 5-yard line. Jaden Shirden followed with a 4-yard touchdown run for a 14-7 St. Joseph lead with 3:38 to play in the quarter. On Valley’s next drive, Sapere was sacked, fumbled, and the Cadets had the ball at the Warriors’ 13 following the recovery. Jude Andrzejewski took in a 3-yard touchdown rush with 16 seconds left and St. Joseph led 21-7 through three quarters.
With 5:03 to play in the game, Babineau threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Mallozzi that extended St. Joseph’s lead to 28-7.
Coach King said the stretch that featured the blocked punt and the fumble was a huge momentum swing and a bit of an emotional letdown for his squad.
“Emotionally, that was a huge turning point. We get down and they go up with emotion and now they have a short field,” said King. “We were fighting to keep them out and using a lot of energy to keep them out of the end zone and so, emotionally, it’s a big letdown.”
King added that a few untimely holding penalties hampered the Warriors’ field position in the second half and he felt that fatigue may have played a part in those penalties.
“They made great adjustments and we didn’t get the job done. They were a few dropped passes that hurt us and a few holding calls that killed us and you can’t do that against them,” he said. “It’s tough enough to get 10 yards and now you have to back up to do 20 yards. I said before the game that we have to play a perfect game and we can’t have penalties and we can’t have turnovers.”
Although it was a disappointing way for the Warriors to finish their season, Coach King still felt that the sum total of the 2016 campaign was a positive one. Valley-Old Lyme won four more games than it did last season, dominated down the stretch to get back to the playoffs, and then reached the semifinal round for the fifth time in the last seven years. King felt that all the work his athletes did throughout the offseason played a heavy hand in the Warriors’ success during the season.
“This group of kids worked their tails off all offseason in the weight room and had a great weight room over the winter,” Coach King said. “Then they went to lifting competitions from there and we took 30-plus kids to [Boston College]. Then there was the passing league and we did exceptionally well and made it to the quarterfinals. And all summer, again, they had great lifting and got after it and worked hard during the summer. And that pays off.”
Sapere completed 12 passes for 229 yards with a touchdown for Valley-Old Lyme, which received 44 yards on 10 carries from running back Daniel Stecher. Burdick caught five passes for 93 yards, O’Brien had three receptions for 90 yards and a score, and Ernest Jean-Pierre had three catches for 32 yards.
On defense, Stetcher made 14 tackles that included three for a loss, while Mike Cullina made 12 tackles for the Warriors. Charlie Littler and Stalls both made eight tackles for Valley, plus O’Brien, Roan Sullivan, and Mitch Conrad had seven apiece.