| Foran Freshmen |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
- |
8 |
| Branford Freshmen |
6 |
13 |
13 |
0 |
- |
32 |
471 Photos
It was a cold windy night as the Hornets played their last home game of the year at
the James L. McVeigh Athletic Complex and took on the Foran Lions. The Lions won
the toss and elected to receive. After receiving the kick, Foran moved to mid
field and turned the ball over on downs. On the first play from scrimmage,
Curtis Sutherland took a handoff and broke through the middle, then slashed to
the sideline and was gone for a 50 yard touchdown. The PAT kick was no good, so
the score was 6-0.
Foran took the next kick and moved a little deeper into
Branford territory, but fumbled it away around the 30. The Hornets moved to
midfield before Sutherland took one around the left side and down the far
sideline for a 48 yard touchdown and a 12-0 lead. After another stalled Lion
drive in Hornet territory, Branford used a steady ground game to drive into the
Lions' side of the field. With less than a minute to play, DJ Ryan dropped a
pass over the line to Andrew Cohen and Cohen made it inside the 20 before a
Foran player punched the ball out from behind. The ball rolled forward into the
endzone and a pile of players ended up on top of it. After peeling the players
off one at a time, Matt O'Neill came out from underneath with the ball and another
6 points for the Hornets. O'Neill also kicked the extra point to give Branford a 19-0 lead
at halftime.
The Hornets took the second half kickoff and moved right
down and scored. After noticing a flaw in the Lion defense, Branford repeatedly
had DJ Ryan Ryan take direct snaps into the line for several short gains before
he broke one loose through the left side for a 40+ yard run down to the goal
line. On the next play, Ryan lofted a short pass to Cohen in the right
side of the end zone for the touchdown. O'Neill made the PAT kick to increase
the lead to 26-0.
The Lions took the next kickoff, and continued to flounder
and could not make a first down so they had to punt. After a penalty backed the
Hornets up to midfield, Ryan dumped a short screen pass to Justin Blood and
Blood cut and slashed his way to a 50-yard touchdown run to put Branford up by a
32-0 score.
In addition to many 4th down stops made by Branford's
defense, Billy Glynn and Andrew Cohen had interceptions and Chris Rice and Matt
O'Neill had fumble recoveries to thwart attempts by the Lion's offense to score.
But late in the fourth quarter when the Hornets turned the ball over in their
own end on downs, Foran capitalized with a 30-yard pass into the left corner for
a touchdown. A pass to the right side was successful for a 2 point conversion,
to make the final score 32-8.
With the win, the Hornets improved their record to 8-1
with one game remaining next week in East Haven versus the arch rival Yellow
Jackets.