500 action photos

It was an unusually warm night for late November with the threat of rain in the air as the Hornets traveled to East Haven High School to play their last game of the year. Branford won the toss and elected to receive. Curtis Sutherland took the bounding kick and returned it through the middle for a 70+ yard touchdown. Matt O'Neill kicked the extra point and very quickly Branford was on top, 7-0.

East Haven received the next kick and couldn't make a first down so they had to punt. A couple of plays later, Sutherland found a hole and the middle and took off for a 48 yard touchdown to open up a 13-0 Hornet lead. The Yellow Jackets were determined to get back into this game and took the next kick and moved into Branford territory, but fumbled it away at the Hornet 40. A couple of nice runs by Sutherland moved the ball to East Haven's 44 as the first quarter came to a close. As the second quarter began, DJ Ryan took a snap and handed it to Sutherland who went left and handed it to Nick Linta who was coming back around, and Linta fired a pass over the middle to a wide open Andrew Cohen who took it 35 yards for a touchdown. O'Neill's second PAT made it 20-0 Branford. On the kickoff that followed, O'Neill miss-kicked the ball off the side of his foot and after the ball rolled 10 yards, Jared Keck alertly dove and covered it up along the sideline to retain possession for the Hornets. When it got to be fourth and long, DJ Ryan took it around the left side and picked up a first down with a nice run. Shortly after, Justin Blood ran in a 30 yard touchdown and then Ryan threw to Keck for a 2 point conversion to make it 28-0 Branford.

Another East Haven punt led to good field position for the Hornets and Blood took advantage with a 39-yard touchdown run and O'Neill made his 3rd PAT kick to give Branford a 35-0 lead. East Haven had to punt again and that gave the Hornets the ball once more with under an minute left in the half. Branford moved backwards on a broken play and a penalty, but on the last play of the half, Ryan dumped a short screen pass to Blood, and Blood cut and slashed his way to the end zone for a 69-yard touchdown and Branford took a 41-0 lead into the half.

The Yellow Jackets took the second half kickoff and moved to midfield. But on the next play, Nick Pataky stripped the ball from East Haven's carrier and then covered up the fumble and Branford took over. The Hornets repeatedly fed the ball to Rob Manaco and Monaco delivered with some big yards to help move the ball down inside East Haven's 5 yard line before Branford turned the ball over on downs on the last play of the 3rd quarter. The Yellow Jackets then marched 96 yards, taking up most of the fourth quarter and scored very late in the game and added a 2 point conversion to make the final score 41-8.

With the win, the Hornets finished their season with a 6 game win streak to improve their overall record to 9-1. An impressive note, in their last 5 games, Branford out scored their opponents 141-0 in the first 3 quarters of those games. This was a great season for these boys, who have gained valuable experience and playing time as they move on to JV next year!