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09/23/2018 12:00 AMIn a game that took 33 years to find its way on the schedule, the Branford football team wasted no time taking control when it faced North Branford in the first meeting between the teams since 1985. The Hornets scored the first four touchdowns of the night and went on to notch a 42-12 victory against the Thunderbirds at Branford High School on Sept. 21.
Junior quarterback Sean Kelly threw two touchdown passes and also ran for a TD to help Branford improve to 3-0 on the year. Senior captain Jackson Seward rushed for a trio of touchdowns for the Hornets. Sophomore Tyler DiNapoli scored two touchdowns on the ground for North Branford, which dropped to 1-2 with the defeat.
While Branford and North Branford are neighboring towns, the Hornets play in the Southern Connecticut Conference and the T-Birds are members of the Pequot Conference. As a result, there is no guarantee for the two schools to meet up on the football field in any given year. Branford and North Branford both had Sept. 21 as an open date on their schedules as the 2018 schedule was being finalized. The Hornets were originally slated to play rival East Haven in a precursor to the teams’ annual Thanksgiving Day matchup. However, that game was nixed, and Branford instead went up against crosstown foe North Branford.
As expected, there was a lot of hype leading up to the contest, which was spotlighted as the WTNH High School Game of the Week. Branford Head Coach John Limone was pleased to see his team maintain its focus amidst the hoopla and emerge with a convincing victory.
“It was just a fun game to be a part of. There was a lot of buzz surrounding the game, and so we wanted to win it. People were really excited about the game, and it was really nice to get a win that was good for our confidence,” Coach Limone said. “It’s something that won’t happen every year and may never happen again, so we were glad to come out on top in a game that a lot of people came out to watch.”
Branford struck first on Kelly’s 58-yard touchdown strike to Chris Bouton with 5:12 remaining in the first quarter. Kelly completed a pass to Bouton at the North Branford 30-yard line, and the senior tight end did the rest by sprinting home for the score. Junior Eli Hanlon kicked the extra point to give the Hornets a 7-0 lead after the opening frame.
The Hornets followed by scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 26-0 halftime advantage. Seward started the surge by scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run just 1:15 into the period, after which Hanlon’s extra point made it 14-0. About four minutes later, Seward later ran in a 9-yard TD to extend the lead to 20-0. Kelly finished off the opening half by rushing for a 25-yard score with 1:12 remaining that put Branford up 26-0 at the break. Kelly had 103 yards passing and also ran for 87 yards to lead the Hornets’ offense.
“It’s a cliché, but we were able to run the ball, and we played good defense. From a simple standpoint, those were the two biggest keys to the game,” said Limone. “We were able to run the ball in the perimeter. We had success with [sophomore Kamryn Holmes] early, and Jackson did a great job rushing the ball. Our first TD was set up by the run game. It was a play-action pass to Bouton, who made an incredible catch. The run game opens up that stuff for us. We did a good job in that respect.”
Around three minutes into the second half, Dinapoli scored for North Branford on a 15-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 26-6. On North Branford’s next drive, Hornets’ junior Ian McDonald blocked a punt to give Branford good field position. Kelly and company took advantage of it as the QB found junior wide receiver Aiden MacNeil for a 19-yard touchdown pass with 3:42 left in the third quarter. Kelly ran in the 2-point conversion to extend Branford’s lead to 34-6.
Dinapoli ran for an 18-yard touchdown to make it 34-12 with 1:38 remaining in the third, but Seward promptly responded by rushing for a 42-yard TD just 10 seconds later to blow the game open. Kelly tossed the 2-point conversion pass to MacNeil to give the Hornets a commanding 42-12 advantage.
Seward had six rushes for 67 yards, and MacNeil caught a pair of passes for 52 yards to aid Branford’s offense. On defense, Bouton and junior Tyler Wetmore both recovered fumbles, while sophomore Anthony LaFogg forced a fumble. Seward made 11 tackles to help Branford come away with the 30-point win.
“The kids did a good job of preparing during the week and were able to get lined up quickly and make the proper plays. Everybody was playing as a unit,” said Coach Limone said. “We played really good team defense and read the ball extremely well. We were just aggressive defensively and ran to the football.”
For North Branford, DiNapoli completed 6-of-10 passes for 84 yards, with senior Nate Raymond catching four of them for 78 yards. DiNapoli also ran the ball 12 times for 78 yards. Senior Lou Raffone gained 50 yards on 11 carries, while sophomore Marquis McFadden rushed eight times for 30 yards. Defensively, senior Nick Mancini made 15 tackles. North Branford will be back on the field when the Thunderbirds face Morgan at the Peters Complex in Clinton on Friday, Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m.
With its win versus the T-Birds, Branford now stands at 3-0 for the first time since 2009, which was the Hornets’ last winning season. Branford’s next contest is a home game against Notre Dame-West Haven at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28.
“It feels really good to be 3-0, but we still have a lot of stuff to clean up. The kids know, and the coaches know, that we’re working toward getting better every week and have some very tough opponents coming up,” Limone said. “We have to take the good things that brought us to 3-0 and keep doing them, and then clean up the stuff that needs cleaning, so we can keep moving down the road and get in a good position to have a nice season.”