Naugatuck’s Matt Harris (2) tries to elude Ansonia’s Hezekiah Duncan Thanksgiving morning. RA ARCHIVE

The Greyhounds were looking for their first back-to-back wins over the Chargers since 1986. The Chargers were seeking revenge for last year’s loss.

The final score may indicate that Ansonia had an easy time in its 49-14 win over the Greyhounds, but three late scores gave the Chargers a wide cushion. In the process, Ansonia’s Arkeel Newsome set two state records and ran away with the game’s MVP award.

Newsome broke Alex Thomas’ single-season record of 47 rushing touchdowns set in 2007 as he tacked on five scores on the day to finish with 50. Newsome also set the state mark with 314 points scored, breaking the previous record held by Bristol Central’s Tim Washington in 2000.

“Obviously Newsome was going to get his yards and we made some mistakes but they weren’t hurting us,” Naugatuck coach Rob Plasky said.

Despite the final score, Naugatuck (6-4) was very much in this game from the start. Nate Franklin took the opening kickoff and had one man to beat as his 45-yard return got the Greyhounds fans in an uproar before the first snap.

The momentum was short-lived as the Chargers’ line, at an average of 6-foot-1 and 260 pounds, began to take its toll. The ‘Hounds were just 1-of-6 on third down conversions and were forced to punt four times in the first half.

It took Ansonia (11-0) just two plays to get on the board. After a 2-yard again, Newsome broke into the secondary and was gone on a 62-yard jaunt into the end zone for a 6-0 advantage.

On the ensuing series, Matt Harris hooked up with Kevin Tousignant on a 14-yard pass and then fired a 20-yard pass to Ryne Griesenauer, but the drive stalled at the Ansonia 43-yard line.

The Naugatuck defense, led by Mike Giugno and Nikko Cari, stopped the Chargers on the next drive, but Naugy botched a handoff on its next series and Ansonia recovered the fumble at the Greyhounds’ 19-yard line.

It didn’t take long for Newsome to find the end zone again and run in the two-point conversion to open up a 14-0 lead with 2:20 left in the first quarter.

Naugatuck’s Nico Cari puts the pressure on Ansonia quarterback Elliot Chudwick. RA ARCHIVE

With 5:54 to play in the half, Jake Yourison (18 carries, 120 yards) scampered down the sidelines, bouncing off several tacklers on the way, but had the ball punched out and sent bounding towards the Ansonia end zone.

Franklin gave chase and fell on it at the 4-yard line to retain possession. Yourison then barreled in for the touchdown behind Connor Campbell to make it a 14-6 game.

After making it a one possession game, Naugatuck had the Chargers facing a third-and-8 when the coverage broke down. Elliot Chudwick threw a 13-yard pass to Ryan O’Connor and two plays later Ansonia took a 21-6 lead at the half on a Newsome 41-yard sprint into the end zone.

“One broken play cost us big time,” Plasky said. “Our coverage broke down and we didn’t get pressure on the quarterback. We didn’t pin our ears back and go get them. We blew the assignment and now we were down two scores going into the half.”

The Chargers scored on the first drive of the second half on Newsome 4-yard dive to up the margin to 28-6.

Yourison followed by plowing his way ahead for 80 yards on four carries, ending in a 38-yard touchdown run with 6:48 left in the third quarter to make it a 28-12 game.

It was all Ansonia from that point as the Chargers scored on three-straight possessions to put the game out of reach.

Woodland’s Matt Zaccagnini (25) breaks free from a tackle by Seymour’s Josh Tilton (55) Nov. 23 in Seymour. The Hawks won the annual rivalry game in dominating fashion 28-7. RA ARCHIVE

Zaccagnini led the charge, but everybody got in on the party. Anthony Scirpo and Kyle McClintick each picked up a touchdown and an interception. Tanner Kingsley rushed for a score and threw another. The front seven combined to stomp out the Wildcats’ offense at—and often behind—the line of scrimmage.

Woodland outgained Seymour, 403-130, including 258-37 in the first half.

“We came out and tackled,” Zaccagnini said. “Through the week, we were thinking about the rivalry, about how Seymour talks about us and we talk about Seymour. When it comes down to it, you just have to play football.”

The Hawks (6-4) held Seymour (5-5) to 5 yards on their first two defensive series while finding the end zone in response to both stops.

Scirpo’s 45-yard run on an end-around set up a perfectly dropped fade by Kingsley to McClintick from 32 yards out for the game’s first score.

On Seymour’s ensuing drive, Dave Alves sacked Luke Grabowski for a 9-yard loss and forced a punt. It was one of five Woodland sacks on the night.

Vigan Mulahu (58) leads the way for Anthony Scirpo to scamper for 45 yards last Wednesday night versus Seymour. RA ARCHIVE

Zaccagnini wasted little time getting the Hawks back in the red zone by breaking a 49-yard run through five tackles to the Seymour 11. Three plays later, Scirpo took another end-around into the end zone from 8 yards out for a 14-0 Woodland lead.

“We wanted to come out hard,” Scirpo said. “I have to credit the linemen. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to run. Our front line did a hell of a job. It was an all-around good effort by the team.”

The Hawks came up with another stop when McClintick intercepted Grabowski at the Woodland 15. After a 79-yard run by Zaccagnini brought the Hawks into the red zone, Kingsley snuck in on a fourth-and-goal at the 2 for a 21-0 advantage, which stood until the half.

Woodland coach Tim Shea saw a strong effort from the offensive line, which is comprised of four seniors.

“We put it on them,” Shea said. “They’re our senior leaders up front. We told them, you’re what’s going to make us go. To go out on top is a great feeling for these kids.”

Zaccagnini had 152 of his 211 yards in the first half, in part due to Seymour’s stronger defense following the break. After a scoreless third quarter, the Wildcats cracked the scoreboard on a 14-yard pass from Grabowski to Jon Wilson to make it 21-7.

But after the teams traded defensive stands, Zaccagnini finally put the game out of reach with his 3-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.

“That’s the type of running back I am,” said Zaccagnini, who finished with 1,471 yards and 14 touchdowns on the season. “I’m not that shifty guy. I always look for the big hit. I like contact. I don’t really feel it during the game. Those two big runs, I was running for my life. At the end, I finally got it in. It felt good.”

Woodland’s Kyle McClintick (6) hauls in a pass despite the defensive effort from Seymour’s Jon Wilson. RA ARCHIVE

“This is my first senior class as a coach, so I’m really happy for them,” Shea said of the seniors, which are the first in school history to beat Seymour three times. “We wanted to go out on a good note and I think we did.”

As a sophomore, injuries threatened more than Jake Yourison’s football career. The Greyhounds senior running back battled through those injuries to come back stronger than ever. RA ARCHIVE

Editor’s note: This feature appeared in the Citizen’s News special Thanksgiving football section. This version was updated following the Thanksgiving game versus Ansonia.

Two years ago, Jake Yourison stared potential paralysis in the face. His injured back was threatening to not only end his football career, but forever change his life.

Yourison played his sophomore season with his L5 and S1 vertebrae at risk of fusing together to form a single joint in his lower back. If they were successful in doing so, doctors told Yourison he would be paralyzed in his lower body.

“I knew that if any moment if I took wrong hit, I could be down for the count,” Yourison says. “But I knew the team needed me so I kept playing.”

And so epitomizes one of the toughest Naugatuck Greyhounds of the last decade.

Luckily, the threat of paralysis diminished as Yourison grew into his body, but he suffered a new round of injuries during last year’s Naugatuck Valley League championship-winning season.

“I hurt my shoulder in week three of the season and I also hurt my other shoulder in the Ansonia game,” Yourison says. “I had two separated shoulders by the end of the season.”

So heading into his senior season, in which he would be heavily involved on both sides of the ball, Yourison knew he had to take care of himself to make it through the last year of his career.

“I tried to overcome my injuries by offseason lifting,” Yourison says. “I needed to keep my body in better condition so I worked out a lot during the offseason.”

Naugatuck coach Rob Plasky saw Yourison’s effort to return to the gridiron for a final time.

“We thought he’d never be able to play another football game,” Plasky says. “With his hard work and perseverance, he was able to get back on to the football field.”

Despite the injuries, Yourison has managed to stay on the field for the majority of the last three years, including last season’s historic run.

“Last year was a lot of fun,” Yourison says. “We had so much talent. We could basically do whatever we wanted on offense and defense. We made a lot of memories with those people.”

But this season was bound to be different as most playmakers from both sides of the ball graduated. Yourison knew he had to take the slack and drape it over his shoulders.

“I knew I was going to have to step up big time,” Yourison says. “There weren’t many people with varsity experience so I had to show them. The speed of the game changes. It took a while for everyone to get it going.”

Yourison’s contributions to this year’s team don’t even start on the field, according to Plasky.

“Jake offers a lot of leadership, just by his example of hard work,” Plasky says. “He’s always there. His commitment and his hard work speak for themselves.”

Over his first two seasons as a varsity player, Yourison saw some time at running back and was the leader of Naugatuck’s defense at middle linebacker. But with Yourison being the only proven offensive player entering this season, Plasky put more of the burden on him.

“The fact that he had a great offensive year for us this year is something,” Plasky says. “I always thought of him as a traditional middle linebacker at Naugatuck High School. We needed him to do more this year and he did it. He single-handedly beat Derby. He almost single-handedly beat Torrington.”

Even though Yourison has individually had a fantastic senior season, the team struggled through a three-loss stretch in the middle of the year to evaporate to the Greyhounds’ chances of repeating last season’s success.

“The toughest part has been trying to stay focused and to keep pushing forward,” Yourison says. “We had those three losses when going in we were undefeated. We wanted to keep our goals and finish with a winning record.”

Naugatuck clinched consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2005-07, but ended the year with a lose to Ansonia on Thanksgiving.

“It’s going to be a crazy day,” Yourison said, prior to Thanksgiving. “It’s going to be our last senior game together. We’re going in there focused. We want to win this game.”

But to Plasky, Yourison’s legacy wouldn’t be determined by what happened on Thanksgiving.

“You can’t really explain,” Plasky says. “He loves football. Those types of kids, you don’t get many of them. He’s a special kid.”

A veteran offensive line led the way for the Hawks this season. LARAINE WESCHLER

Editor’s note: This feature appeared in the Citizen’s News special Thanksgiving football section. This version has been updated to include statistics from the Thanksgiving game versus Seymour.

The body of a football team is assembled with diverse parts that make up the whole unit. The quarterback is the head, while the running backs are the legs that churn the body forward to move the chains and pick up crucial first downs.

The arms of the team are the fleet-footed and sure-handed wide receivers, hauling in passes with fearless bravado as the defense bears down on them. The backbone is the defense that holds opponents in check, allowing the offense to work its magic.

It’s a total team effort. But the heart of the team beats across the line of scrimmage and that honor is reserved for the guys in the trenches.

Most football teams have players to fill the skill positions, but the difference between success and failure falls squarely on the shoulders of the guys on the front line of battle.

The Woodland football team came into the season with two players thrust into the spotlight with first-year starting sophomore Tanner Kingsley at quarterback and senior running back Matt Zaccagnini, who earned All-Copper Division honors at linebacker last season.

The fortunes of the Hawks season rested on the performances of these two players who had to try to replace the output of Jack DeBiase, who ran for 1,577 yards and 14 touchdowns and threw for 948 yards and 11 touchdowns on last year’s playoff squad.

But Kingsley and Zaccagnini needed some help, and the Hawks returned a veteran line led by senior captain Tom Gendreau along with seniors Vigan Mulahu, Dave Alves, Ryan Wilkinson and junior Jeremy Clark.

“Tom is a three-year starter and one of our captains,” Woodland head coach Tim Shea says. “The line is a cohesive unit and they all started last year. Offensive line coach Chris Moffo has done a great job with them and we knew going into the season that they would be the strength of the team.”

How well did the line play as a unit? Kingsley had enough time in the pocket to throw for 1,387 yards and 14 touchdowns on the season. Zaccagnini rushed for 1,304 yards and 13 touchdowns while the team compiled over 1,500 yards on the ground and 13 touchdowns total in the rushing game for the year.

The Hawks have averaged 28 points per game and topped the 40-point mark three times.

“Having guys up front that had the experience that we had was a tremendous confidence builder for the offense,” Gendreau says. “I’m sure Tanner and Matt would have gained the yards no matter who was up front. But our experience put us at a different level right from the start.

“We worked real hard together in the offseason to get ready for this year,” Gendreau says. “We are a close-knit unit and we can see different fronts and spot the blitzes coming because of our experience.”

At one point, Woodland had a 4-1 record, outscoring the opposition, 154-81. Then came the tough part of the schedule with Torrington, Naugatuck, Holy Cross and Wolcott, in which the Hawks went 1-3 to fall to 5-4 overall.

“Every week teams would load up the box to try and stop the run and put pressure on Tanner,” Shea says. “But these guys led by example. They helped Tanner get acclimated at quarterback and helped Matt to establish the running game. The leadership that they showed helped all the younger players to step up.”

On Thanksgiving eve, the Hawks’ offensive once again paved the way to a 28-7 over Seymour.

Woodland senior Matt Zaccagnini breaks the tackle of Seymour's Josh Tilton en route to his 211 yards and a touchdown in the final game of his career, a 28-7 win over Seymour on Thanksgiving eve. SPECIAL TO CITIZEN'S NEWS

SEYMOUR — Matt Zaccagnini rushed for 211 yards and a touchdown, three other Woodland players scored, and the Hawks held Seymour to just 130 yards in a dominating, 28-7 win over the Wildcats in the annual Thanksgiving eve game Wednesday night at DeBarber Field.

Zaccagnini led the charge, but everybody got in on the party. Anthony Scirpo and Kyle McClintick each picked up a touchdown and an interception. Tanner Kingsley rushed for a score and threw another. The front seven combined to stomp out the Wildcats’ offense at—and often behind—the line of scrimmage.

Woodland outgained Seymour, 403-130, including 258-37 in the first half.

“We came out and tackled,” Zaccagnini said. “Through the week, we were thinking about the rivalry, about how Seymour talks about us and we talk about Seymour. When it comes down to it, you just have to play football.”

The Hawks (6-4) held Seymour (5-5) to 5 yards on its first two defensive series while finding the end zone in response to both stops.

Scirpo’s 45-yard run on an end-around set up a perfectly dropped fade by Kingsley to McClintick from 32 yards out for the game’s first score.

Woodland senior Kyle McClintick catches his 32-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Kingsley over Seymour's Jon Wilson during the Hawks' 28-7 victory on Thanksgiving eve. SPECIAL TO CITIZEN'S NEWS

On Seymour’s ensuing drive, Dave Alves sacked Luke Grabowski for a 9-yard loss and forced a punt. It was one of five Woodland sacks on the night.

“We have a shut-down defense,” Alves said. “Everybody went their hardest knowing it was our last game. We left it out there.”

Zaccagnini wasted little time getting the Hawks back in the red zone by breaking a 49-yard run through five tackles to the Seymour 11. Three plays later, Scirpo took another end-around into the end zone from 8 yards out for a 14-0 Woodland lead.

“We wanted to come out hard,” Scirpo said. “I have to credit the linemen. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to run. Our front line did a hell of a job. It was an all-around good effort by the team.”

The Hawks came up with another stop when McClintick intercepted Grabowski at the Woodland 15. After a 79-yard run by Zaccagnini brought the Hawks into the red zone, Kingsley snuck in on a fourth-and-goal at the 2 for a 21-0 advantage, which stood until the half.

Woodland coach Tim Shea saw a strong effort from the offensive line, which is comprised of four seniors.

“We put it on them,” Shea said. “They’re our senior leaders up front. We told them, you’re what’s going to make us go. To go out on top is a great feeling for these kids.”

Zaccagnini had 152 of his 211 yards in the first half, in part due to Seymour’s stronger defense following the break. After a scoreless third quarter, the Wildcats cracked the scoreboard on a 14-yard pass from Grabowski to Jon Wilson to make it 21-7.

Woodland junior Anthony Scirpo looks for an opening with lead blocker Vigan Mulahu ahead. Scirpo rushed for a touchdown and intercepted a pass in the Hawks' 28-7 victory over Seymour on Thanksgiving eve. SPECIAL TO CITIZEN'S NEWS

But after the teams traded defensive stands, Zaccagnini finally put the game out of reach with his 3-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.

“That’s the type of running back I am,” said Zaccagnini, who finished with 1,471 yards and 14 touchdowns on the season. “I’m not that shifty guy. I always look for the big hit. I like contact. I don’t really feel it during the game. Those two big runs, I was running for my life. At the end, I finally got it in. It felt good.”

Shea said he was especially proud of Woodland’s senior class, with which he feels a special connection.

“This is my first senior class as a coach, so I’m really happy for them,” Shea said. “We wanted to go out on a good note and I think we did.”

Chris Anderson built the Woodland football program, winning two Naugatuck Valley League and two Class SS state championships in the first four varsity seasons. RA ARCHIVE

A little more than 10 years ago, a new place called Woodland Regional High School was about to open, smack dab in the heart of the Naugatuck Valley.

The Valley, of course, is synonymous with a lot of things, but few things are more closely associated with it than high school football. So for Woodland to really become part of the Valley, it needed to have a football team—and it needed to be good.

Principal Arnold Frank and athletic consultant Rich Calabro hired Derby High graduate Chris Anderson to start the program, and Anderson brought in other coaches from the Valley, including Ansonia High grad Tim Phipps.

They, with the rest of the staff and the kids who first populated the school in 2001, began work on what is one of the greatest Valley football stories of them all.

***

Summer 2001

As construction at Woodland finished, Anderson’s freshmen and sophomores began practice in the open field at Laurel Ledge Elementary School. Nothing was there except an equipment trailer and some dirt. Needless to say, it was not all roses.

“Our first sets of pads were Pop Warner pads,” Phipps says. “Our first locker room was actually a classroom. Our first goalposts were PVC pipes anchored in 10-gallon buckets of concrete.”

Jared Katchmar, who became a three-year starting quarterback and is on the Mount Rushmore of Woodland greats, remembers the chaos of the first subvarsity season.

“About 20 kids quit that season, so we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Katchmar says. “The next season, [Anderson] wanted us to go varsity and we were getting killed. I was like, this guy is crazy.”

September 2002

Crazy or not, Woodland prepared to play a full varsity schedule with zero seniors on the roster. Katchmar didn’t much care for Anderson’s no-nonsense practices.

“The practices were awful,” Katchmar says. “Every good player never really liked practice. We all wanted to get out. He made us practice a lot. We were working like dogs. That team wasn’t really that talented. That was the farthest thing from it. He just worked us so hard.”

The Hawks traveled anywhere they could get a varsity contest, as they weren’t set to join the Naugatuck Valley League in football until 2003. They earned their first win at St. Bernard in Uncasville.

“It was an important win because the kids were unsure,” Anderson says. “We started something like 18 sophomores in that game. They realized they could win at a young age.”

Those sophomores—Katchmar, Pat Krakowski, Matt Dorosh, Tim Hutvagner, Eric Moraniec, Mark LaFortune, and several others—only tasted victory twice more than season en route to a 3-8 record, which remains the worst in program history.

September 2003

Jared Katchmar quarterbacked Woodland to some of the biggest wins in program history. RA ARCHIVE

Woodland’s first season as a full varsity member of the NVL didn’t begin with a league game but instead with a game against New London, a perennial state power. The Hawks beat the Whalers, 35-20, and earned more than a victory.

“That team is a great program every year,” Katchmar says of New London. “After that, we knew we could compete with anybody.”

The following week, Woodland finally prepared for its initiation into the NVL with a game against Holy Cross, a 26-12 victory for the Hawks.

“I remember how intense that was,” Phipps says. “We came into an NVL that was very, very strong.”

“The NVL was good,” Katchmar says. “But the guys who were on our team had played together forever. We knew we could play.”

Oct. 31, 2003

Woodland and Naugatuck were meant to be rivals. For years, kids from Region 16 had no high school of their own, so many of them headed to the borough. But the new school on Back Rimmon Road gave Beacon Falls and Prospect a chance to compete against the town that lies between them.

Anderson calls it “amazing.” Katchmar says it was “euphoric.” But Phipps may best summarize the importance of Woodland’s insane, comeback, 40-37 win over Naugatuck that night.

“I think that was our program game,” Phipps says.

Woodland entered the game 5-2 and was coming off a disappointing, 26-19 loss to Wilby. More importantly, Katchmar wasn’t even sure if he could play against the 6-1 Greyhounds.

“I sprained my ankle in the Watertown game two weeks before,” Katchmar says. “I didn’t play against Wilby. It really was bad. I was on crutches two days before the Naugatuck game. [Trainer] Ray Donaghy had me in there getting constant treatment. I was skipping class to get treatment, and the teachers were good with it as long as I made up the work.”

Thank goodness for those teachers or else the Valley would not have seen one of the most impressive efforts by a quarterback in NVL history.

Katchmar finished 23-of-44 for 437 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. His effort inside the last two minutes of the game, in which he threw two touchdown passes to Jay Kymer and Krakowski less than a minute and a half apart, remains ingrained in his mind.

“We ran Hail Marys and all that stuff,” Katchmar says. “The plays that were run, I just ask myself, ‘Did that happen?’”

While still in a state of some disbelief eight years later, Katchmar is still able to recount the exact details from that fourth quarter, including the moment-by-moment description of what happened on his game-winning, 16-yard touchdown pass to Krakowski on fourth-and-10 as time expired.

“Pat was all mad,” Katchmar says, describing how he switched Krakowski route with the pattern Matt Trzaski would usually run. “He didn’t want to run up the middle, so I put him on the outside. He made the play and it was pandemonium. I loved it.”

“That was important because it showed the kids they could compete against a Valley football team,” Anderson says. “Naugatuck has 100 years of tradition. To be able to beat them at that young stage of the program really set the tone that we could go far.”

Pat Krakowski still holds several program records he set while Woodland's feature running back from 2002-04. RA ARCHIVE

Nov. 26, 2003

Valley football and Thanksgiving go together like turkey and cranberry sauce, like mashed potatoes and gravy. So for Woodland to be a real Valley football team, it needed Thanksgiving.

It just so happened that Seymour didn’t usually play on Thanksgiving. Two plus two equals four.

“I remember being excited because we had a Thanksgiving game that was a legitimate Valley football game,” Phipps says. “Growing up as a kid you were either at Ansonia-Naugatuck or Derby-Shelton. That was my hope that people would eventually say they were going to the Woodland-Seymour game.”

But the first game of the rivalry at DeBarber Field wasn’t a storybook ending to a fantastic first NVL season. Injuries, illnesses, and the Wildcats’ talent added up to a 41-14 beatdown, which ended the Hawks’ season at 8-3.

Anderson considers that loss the most important in school history.

“Sometimes you have to lose in order to win,” Anderson says. “We learned a lot about ourselves and what we needed to do to get to the next level. It was good in a way that it happened.”

Sept. 16, 2004

With most starters returning, the 2004 season held historic potential. But the view from the outside was different than the one from the inside.

“The offseason was insane,” Katchmar says. “A bunch of stuff was happening. We didn’t look too good. We were supposed to roll Watertown [in the first game], and they come out and went up, 7-0.”

“But then we put on a show.”

After the Indians’ first-quarter touchdown, the Woodland defense played 24 straight periods of scoreless football.

“They were so good,” Katchmar says of the defense, which allowed just 66 points all season and pitched seven shutouts. “We knew the defense was going to carry us through.”

Nov. 12, 2004

Woodland carried an 8-0 record into Ansonia’s Jarvis Stadium to meet the state’s most successful program in history.

“Leading up to that game, I told them, ‘You’re not somebody until you beat Ansonia,’” Anderson says. “The biggest thing was that those kids were not afraid going into that atmosphere. I think it was because they played varsity at such a young age. They had experienced a lot of adversity, so they didn’t care who we were playing.”

Katchmar recalls one particular Anderson tactic to help the team prepare for the biggest game in school history to that point.

“Before the season, he took us to every place we would play,” Katchmar says. “We went to the fields and took dirt and grass from each of the fields. Then we would bring it back to the weight room. We were driving up and down the Valley. It was crazy.”

That Friday night was a miserable, rainy, cold evening that saw Jarvis’ grass turn to mud. It was exactly like legendary Chargers coach Jack Hunt wanted it.

“We wanted to call off the game because it was pouring and it around 30 degrees,” Katchmar says. “Jack Hunt knew we wanted to throw the ball so he wanted to play that night. We wanted to play them on a nice day because we would have beaten them, 48-0.”

Woodland had to settle for a 21-0 win. It was the first time Ansonia was shut out in an NVL game since Naugatuck beat the Chargers, 22-0, in 1993.

Nov. 26, 2004

Shane Kingsley was a vital two-way player for Woodland, helping the Hawks to both NVL and state titles in 2004 and 2005. RA ARCHIVE

In just their second season as members of the NVL, the Hawks were going to host the league championship game against Seymour.

“For us, a lot of our guys went to Seymour prior,” Anderson says. “I don’t know if we believed we could beat Seymour. Coming into that game after suffering the loss that we did the year before, there might have been some doubt in their minds. But we believed without any evidence.”

Despite the game being moved from Wednesday night to Friday afternoon, fans flocked to Woodland like they never had before and never have since. At least 4,000 spectators filled the low-rise bleachers, lined the entire circumference of the fence three- or four-deep, and packed the grassy south hill to the top.

The teams traded the lead several times throughout the game. Seymour took an 8-0 lead, then Woodland scored 21 straight points to grab a commanding edge. But the Wildcats rallied with scores at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth to earn a 22-21 advantage.

“It was one of the greatest games I’ve ever been associated with,” Anderson says. “Two heavyweights were slugging it out. There were so many momentum changes back and forth. Really anybody could have won the game.”

Woodland drove down the field late in the fourth quarter and Katchmar hit Shane Kingsley on a 74-yard completion down the right sideline. But Kingsley had the ball knocked away from behind and the Wildcats recovered.

Still, the Hawks’ defense—which allowed over a third of the points it gave up all season to Seymour—made three straight stops, each accompanied with a timeout, on the ensuing drive to give Katchmar and Woodland one more shot starting at their own 46-yard line.

Katchmar, who was 17-of-25 for 340 yards and two touchdowns, connected four times with Jeff Jones for all 54 yards, including the game-winning, 12-yard touchdown pass with 47.4 seconds remaining to seal the program’s first NVL championship in a 27-22 win.

“Being the no-huddle offense that we had, it didn’t faze us to get down the field quickly,” Anderson says. “Fortunately, we made the plays and it went down in history.”

Nov. 30, 2004

The Hawks earned the No. 1 seed in the Class SS playoffs and opened with No. 4 Hartford Public on Tuesday night, just four days after winning the NVL title.

“We didn’t have any time to celebrate the NVL championship,” Anderson says. “Credit the kids for getting refocused for that game. Going from not thinking they’d be able to beat Seymour to beating them, you would think it could go to a young kid’s head.”

In perhaps the most physical, so-ugly-that-it’s-pretty game in program history, Woodland snuck out a 13-6 victory thanks to an early Katchmar touchdown run and a late scoring toss to Trzaski.

“That Hartford Public game should have been the state championship,” Katchmar says. “They were nasty. We probably shouldn’t have won the game. We were never losing, but they were a good football team.”

Dec. 4, 2004

In just their third varsity season, the Hawks were playing for a state championship. To make it even sweeter, they were facing rival Holy Cross at Trumbull’s McDougall Field.

After a sloppy first few minutes, Woodland routed the Crusaders, 35-0. The Hawks scored in each quarter as Krakowski ran for 175 yards and two touchdowns while Katchmar threw three touchdown passes to Jones, who earned the game’s MVP award.

“It was kind of like the perfect ending to a perfect story,” Anderson says. “We beat Holy Cross, which was another school that took our boys and girls from Region 16 for years, and how appropriate to play them. It was just a wonderful ending.”

The celebration on the field was only exceeded by the unprecedented support of cars and fire trucks that greeted the buses once they took Exit 23 on Route 8 North.

“It was crazy,” Katchmar says. “Disbelief a little bit. We knew we worked so hard since day one. You can’t piece together everything from practicing at Laurel Ledge to having our own school to our own lights. It was like a town effort. There were so many people that nobody ever talks about. They made the road so much better.”

Mike Stankus was one of the top defensive players in Woodland history, helping the Hawks to back-to-back NVL and state championships. RA ARCHIVE

Nov. 17, 2005

The road was still being paved late into the 2005 season. New quarterback Alex Dorosh and the crop of seniors led by Kingsley, Jones, Mike Stankus, and Jeff Temple helped stretch Woodland’s winning streak to 21 entering the NVL championship against Holy Cross.

The Hawks took a 7-0 lead on a second-quarter touchdown run by Jones. Woodland held that lead into the fourth quarter until the Crusaders tied it with 9:53 to play.

Later in the fourth, an interception-return touchdown gave Holy Cross a 14-7 lead with 5:17 left. Woodland squandered the ensuing possession and gave the ball back to the Crusaders inside their own territory with less than three minutes to go.

Enter Kingsley, who came up with perhaps the most Herculean play of his career on defense.

“You have a player like Shane Kingsley who understands he didn’t just need to stop them, but he needed to get the ball,” Anderson says. “We executed a stunt that we called a stinger stunt where we sent the free safety through the A-gap. He timed it perfectly and was able to dislodge the ball and give our offense a chance.”

With just 29 seconds to play, Dorosh hit Paul Brewer with a 29-yard touchdown pass. Justin Hilton’s PAT tied the game at 14 and sent it to overtime before Ryan Lewis punched in the game-winning touchdown from 3 yards out to give Woodland a 21-14 win.

“Credit our kids because they never believed that the game was over,” Anderson says. “Those kids played until the end no matter what the score was.”

Dec. 3, 2005

Woodland had its 22-game winning streak snapped by Seymour on Thanksgiving eve, and the Hawks were forced to the road for their Class SS semifinal. After an easy, 27-7 win over North Branford in the semifinal, Woodland prepared for a second-straight state title game against Brookfield.

The Hawks never trailed in the game but had to make a final defensive stand to preserve a 19-13 lead on Brookfield’s last drive. Inside the final minute, Kingsley made his second interception of the night just in front of the Woodland goal line to clinch the back-to-back state titles and earn the game’s MVP award.

“It was really surreal,” Anderson says. “You don’t realize what happened. Even now, I’ll step outside the boxes and look at what we accomplished and it’s like a dream. You can’t believe all that happened like it did. The seniors from ’05 wanted to leave their mark. The seniors from ’04 had done it, but they graduated and then people said, well now what can you do.”

Nov. 21, 2007

Not every great game in which Woodland took part went down in the books as a win for the Black and Gold. In what will forever be known in the Valley as the Fog Bowl, Seymour won its third-straight Thanksgiving eve game in a wild, 36-35 game.

Jon Murren had one of the best single-game rushing efforts in school history with 247 yards and three touchdowns. But after his final touchdown, a 33-yarder to bring Woodland to within one, the Hawks failed on a two-point conversion attempt.

“I remember [Seymour coach Paul] Sponheimer came up to me and said, that was a classic Valley football game,” Phipps says. “I agreed with him, but I remember wishing we were on the other end of it.”

Woodland qualified for the Class SS playoff for the third time in four years but lost to Seymour again. That playoff loss was the final game at Woodland for Anderson, who resigned to become a coach at the University of New Haven.

***

Over 4,000 fans watched Woodland's 27-22 victory over Seymour for the 2004 NVL championship in Beacon Falls. RA ARCHIVE

The Hawks’ unprecedented success in the first six years of the program came as a result of several factors, but one stands out above all.

“It comes down to Chris Anderson,” Phipps says. “That’s how it happened. He was a true leader. He was a person who knew how to take a group of individuals, mold them, and lead them in a common direction.”

“We were like the old Oakland Raiders,” Katchmar says of the 2004 squad, in particular. “We were Black and Gold instead of Black and Silver. We played defense and we had some crazy guys on that team. And Anderson was like Al Davis. His attention to detail is almost not human. He pulls out the craziest things and he’ll fine-tune it. We knew that if we could just play, he would win us a state title.”

But the players from the program’s infancy deserve just as much credit.

“Those kids back then were just different,” says current Woodland head coach Tim Shea, a Naugatuck High grad who joined the staff in 2002. “They went through so much when we went varsity and their first year when we didn’t have a locker room or a weight room. That group was so tight that they had this dying belief that they were going to come out on top, no matter what. To this day, they’re still that tight. They were the ones who got us to where we are now.”

“We pulled from kids whose parents played at Naugatuck and Seymour,” Phipps says. “To have their own thing, that meant something to those kids. I think about Jared Katchmar and the Kingsley family and Tim Hutvagner. You could tell it meant something to have your own school. It was special.”

***

Now, as Woodland’s 10^th varsity season concludes, is as good a time as ever to evaluate the legacy of this first decade, which includes more winning seasons, great players, and a fourth playoff berth under Shea’s leadership.

“I’ve always had a lot of love for Valley football,” Phipps says. “To be a part of that and hopefully live up to that standard, to say we slugged it out against the big boys is what I want. I hope when we look back on all of this people say, Woodland played Valley football. They lived up to the Ansonias and the Seymours and the Naugatucks of the past.”

“After all these years, the community finally has a team to call its own,” Shea says. “We’re battling against 100 years of tradition there, 100 years of tradition there. We’ve accomplished a lot in 10 years. By no means are we satisfied with where we are. But as the years go on, when our players have kids and they want to play at Woodland, that’s when you really have a program.”

And all the memorable moments, crazy rallies, and historic victories combine to make it a decade that will live forever in the minds of those who coached, played, or watched them.

“They were all special,” Anderson says. “They were all pieces in different scenarios. I love them all.”

***

This feature appears in the Citizen’s News’ special 2011 Thanksgiving football section. 

BEACON FALLS — Big plays by opponents in the second half this season have been Woodland’s nemeses. See last Saturday’s 31-22 loss to Wolcott for evidence.

The Hawks squandered a fourth-quarter lead by allowing two, long, game-breaking passes by Mike Nicol to Pat Byrne to effectively quash Woodland’s Class S playoff hopes.

The first big play came in the fourth as the Eagles faced a third-and-19 at their own 45 after a sack of Nicol by Dave Alves. Nicol hit Byrne on a 35-yard fade down the right sideline to extend the drive. Two plays later, Adam Santopietro scored on a 2-yard pitch to give Wolcott a 24-22 lead.

“I saw it was cover two,” Byrne said. “I told Coach Corny [Joe Cornelio] that we should run a fade and he believed me. He had trust. Nicol delivered a great ball.”

“I just thought we had to follow them [after they scored],” Nicol said. “You can’t tuck your tail. You have to keep going.”

After Woodland’s ensuing drive ended in a fumble, the Eagles faced a fourth-and-9 at the Hawks’ 31. Again, Nicol hit Byrne on a long pass, but this time it was in the end zone.

“I got really lucky with it,” Nicol admitted. “I saw him going down the sideline and just threw it up there. He came down with it and made a big play.”

Tom Bochicchio’s extra point—the Eagles’ only conversion of the day—put the game out of reach at 31-22 with 3:23 to play.

Woodland coach Tim Shea saw the Eagles make the bigger plays and fewer mistakes.

“They out-executed us in key times of the game,” Shea said. “We played not a very good first half, a much better second half, but we had too many mistakes that they capitalized upon. That’s what good teams do.”

Woodland trailed from the get-go but pulled to within 12-7 on Matt Zaccagnini’s first touchdown run of the day, a 4-yarder late in the second quarter. However, a 65-yard touchdown pass from Nicol to Jason Matos on the next offensive play made it an 18-7 game at the half.

But the Hawks rallied by scoring 15 unanswered points to begin the fourth quarter. Zaccagnini, who ran 36 times for a game-high 248 yards, scored from 8 yards out early in the fourth period to make it an 18-15 game.

Woodland forced a fumble on the ensuing drive and Zaccagnini came up with a huge third-down conversion on a pitch that went for 44 yards and a touchdown for a 22-18 lead.

After Woodland’s go-ahead touchdown, Woodland tried to squib the ensuing kickoff but it was recovered on the front line by the Eagles at the Hawks’ 46-yard line.

“We just tried to kick it on the ground,” Shea said. “They weren’t onside kicks at all. They just didn’t go through the hole. We just didn’t want to kick it deep and have a big return.”

Shea wasn’t sure if the short week, in which Woodland had to recover from its game against Holy Cross on Monday while Wolcott had extra days off, affected the outcome.

“The last few weeks, we haven’t had a consistent week at all,” Shea said. “This week, they had four more days to prepare. I don’t know if that mattered, but it’s tough. Now we’re going to see what we’re made of.”

The Hawks will try to salvage a winning season on Thanksgiving eve against Seymour.

Naugatuck’s Mick Pernell runs free for a 14-yard touchdown last Friday night versus Kennedy. The Greyhounds won 41-6 and now turn their focus to the annual Thanksgiving game versus Ansonia. KEN MORSE

The Greyhounds stood tall to the challenge and held the Eagles scoreless for the remainder of the game, allowing only 177 yards and giving the Naugy offense a chance to score six times in a 41-6 win on senior night.

“Winning solves everything,” Naugatuck coach Rob Plasky said. “We’re still going to perform and practice like we are playing for a championship. I told the kids, you don’t disrespect the game of football. You come out here and give it everything you’ve got, and that’s what they did tonight.”

“We played hard and we were focused,” senior Nico Rivera added. “We knew what we had to do and we went out and got it done.”

Naugatuck took the next possession after Kennedy’s score and went down the field on the back of Jake Yourison (17 carries, 188 yards). The senior running back barreled into the end zone from 4 yards out and Kevin Tousignant booted the extra point for a 7-6 lead with 6:36 left in the first.

Tousignant then came up big on defense with an interception at midfield and the Greyhounds were on the move again. Yourison moved the chains three times on long gains and then bowled over the Kennedy defense on a 19-yard blast to open up a 14-6 advantage.

“We had a great week of practice even though it was a short week,” Yourison said. “We came in focused and executed every play.”

Naugatuck utilized everything it had on offense. Quarterback Zac Mercer was back after sitting out the previous week with an injury and went 2-for-2 for 33 yards.

Matt Harris, Yourison, and Ricky Plasky also took snaps as the passing game generated 73 yards to go along with the 287 yards on the ground.

Harris brought the ball inside the Kennedy red zone and then pitched to Mick Pernell, who scampered 14 yards into the end zone to make it a 20-6 advantage with 6:16 left in the first half.

Tim Woodfield, Nikko Cari, Mike Guigno and Rivera (two sacks) made tackles in the Kennedy backfield to hold off the Eagles.

Right before the end of the half, Yourison bolted down the sidelines on a 37-yard touchdown blast to make it a 27-6 lead at the break. As Yourison was about to break the plane of the end zone, a Kennedy defender came up and punched the ball out. It hit the ground and popped back up into Yourison’s arms for the score.

“Hold onto the football.” Plasky yelled as Yourison approached the sidelines following the play.

Late in the third quarter, Naugatuck showed more of its diversity on offense when Mick Pernell took a lateral from Harris on a fourth-and-18. Pernell stopped in his tracks and lofted a 34-yard touchdown strike to Ryan Griesenauer, who out-leaped a defender and fell backwards into the end zone to make it a 34-6 lead.

Nate Franklin showed that the ‘Hounds have more than a couple of running backs in their stable as he ran for 46 yards on five carries, scoring on a 4-yard blast for the final 41-6 margin.

Naugatuck will conclude the season on Thanksgiving against Ansonia. The Greyhounds will seek their second straight win in the series.

Naugatuck’s Jake Yourison, right, breaks loose for a touchdown Monday at Watertown. The Greyhounds snapped a three-game losing streak with a 29-13 win over the Indians. KEN MORSE

The Greyhounds went out and did just that as they defeated Watertown on Monday by a 29-13 margin, improving to 5-3 on the season.

“We set things straight in practice this week,” Naugatuck head coach Rob Plasky said. “We, as a coaching staff, are going to give it everything we have preparing the team to play each week and we expect the players to do the same.”

Quarterback Ricky Plasky made his first varsity start in place of the injured Zac Mercer and completed his only pass for 8 yards. Jake Yourison handled double duty, rushing for 92 yards and two touchdowns while throwing for 88 yards on 5-of-13 passing including a touchdown pass to Mick Pernell for 50 yards.

Nick Kosa stepped into a major role as he carried 14 times for 67 hard yards and a touchdown. As solid as the offense looked, several key defensive plays defined how Naugatuck went about closing this game out and sticking it in the win column.

Pernell made an interception at midfield to stop a Watertown (2-6) drive. Matt Carda came up with a monster hit that dropped a Watertown runner in his tracks behind the line of scrimmage.

Tim Woodfield, Mike Schebell, Mike Giugno and Nikko Cari made fourth-quarter sacks to ensure the Indians would not make a late comeback. But the play that got things turned around came at the end of the first half.

With under a minute to play before the break, Naugatuck was forced to punt deep in its own territory while clinging to a 7-6 lead. Giugno charged downfield and stripped the ball away from punt returner Eric Ford. Besim Bomova was there to pick it up and raced down the sidelines 42 yards to the Watertown 3-yard line with 35 seconds left on the clock.

Yourison punched it into the end zone and then tacked on the two-point conversion run to up the advantage at 15-6 at the half.

That play would loom large as Watertown came out in the third quarter and Anthony Avoletta (24 carries for 149 yards) busted one 57 yards into the end zone to cut the deficit to 15-13.

Pernell later got off a 55-yard punt to pin the Indians back on their own goal line to start the fourth quarter. That sparked the defense as Naugatuck started to make some key plays preventing Watertown from finding the end zone again.

Pernell’s midfield interception gained possession for the ‘Hounds, and on the next offensive play he hauled in a 50-yard touchdown pass to up the advantage to 22-13.

Naugatuck closed out the scoring with 2:07 remaining when Kosa busted through the line from 3 yards out for the 29-13 final margin.

The Greyhounds took an early lead when Yourison rumbled 48 yards down the sidelines before taking it in from 9 yards out to give Naugatuck a 7-0 lead with 1:25 left in the first quarter.

Watertown closed the gap to 7-6 when quarterback Andy Biello snuck it in from a yard out with 6:14 remaining in the first half.

Naugy will be at home on Friday when it hosts Kennedy in the final tune-up for the Thanksgiving Day game with Ansonia.

“Nothing has changed around here since the first day of the season,” Plasky said. “We had a few lineup changes due to injuries and some players not being out there. But we are going to put the players out there that want to be out there. No one player is bigger than the program and that is how we are going to treat the rest of this season.”