Naugy earns tournament berth with win over St. Paul
NAUGATUCK — The Greyhounds bid farewell to an exciting group of seniors last Friday at Veterans Field in Naugatuck. There was another reason to celebrate on senior night as Naugatuck topped St. Paul, 56-41, in an offensive shootout to earn a spot in the Class L state playoffs.
“I say it all the time every game takes on a life of its own and we survived a real back-and-forth struggle,” Naugatuck head coach Craig Bruno said. “It’s an awesome feeling to be going to the playoffs. We got edged out last year but it’s a long hard road to get here and I’m so proud of these kids. They worked hard to get here.”
The Greyhounds came out with some fire in their belly. After a punt on their first possession the punter never saw the field again.
The Greyhounds went on to score seven first half touchdowns, led by an exceptional group of seniors.
Senior captain Chris Quarles got the boat rocking when he came in and blocked a St. Paul punt at the 25-yard line. He later broke up a fourth-down pass that led to another score for the ‘Hounds.
It took just one play after the blocked punt for Jason Bradley (13-of-26, 309 yards, six touchdowns) to hook up with Bryan Coney (five catches, 119 yards, three touchdowns) on a 17-yard score.
Senior C.J. Wall showed he’s got game hauling in five catches for 149 yards and two touchdowns all in the first half. Wall’s big night nullified the Falcons’ attempt to double-team Coney.
“I might have been a little nervous on the first pass that I dropped,” Wall said. “This is my first year and once I got over that I just focused on every play. They tried to double up Coney so I had to step up.”
Antoine Sistrunk (11 rushes, 147 yards, three touchdowns) gave St. Paul something else to think about as he chewed up real estate in chunks of 20 yards per clip.
After a Bradley-to-Wall 8-yard touchdown, Sistrunk blasted his way for a 25-yard score to open up a 20-0 Naugy lead with 4:13 still left in the first quarter.
Sistrunk’s runs had more stops and starts than an afternoon traffic jam. Using his exceptional field vision the junior tail back had jaunts of 25, 22 and 15 before pulling in a pass from Bradley and making a defender miss on a 27-yard scoring strike to give Naugy a 28-7 lead going into the second quarter.
The Falcons had some gas in their tank. Eli Parks tore up 328 yards and scored four touchdowns on the ground as quarterback Pat Etter went 10-of-18 for 140 yards through the air. But it was no match for the high-octane ‘Hounds, who they threw another 22 points at the scoreboard in the second quarter to open up a staggering 50-21 lead at the half.
“Whatever the defense throws at us we have a lot of guys on this team that can make plays,” Bradley said. “C.J. was open a lot and he made the catches. We have a lot of weapons on this team.”
Touchdown passes of 32 yards to Coney and 47 yards to Wall pushed Naugy towards the half century mark with 1:42 left in the half. The Naugy defense, led by Socrates Ilunga and P.J. Murphy, stalled the Falcons. On fourth down Aaron Yourison and Kevin Robinson broke through for a sack and Naugy had the ball back with just 34 seconds left in the half. That was more than enough time for Sistrunk to find his way back into the end zone to conclude a 50-point first half.
Coney added a 47-yard touchdown grab in the third quarter. St. Paul hung up another three touchdowns, but never got close enough to make a serious threat.
Bradley called reaching the playoffs a major milestone for the team and his fellow seniors.
“I believe we are just the sixth Naugatuck football team to make the playoffs so accomplishing that is a huge milestone for all of these seniors,” he said. “Once you get your ticket to the dance you can make anything happen.”
Naugatuck has one more piece of business to take care of before the playoffs start — the annual Thanksgiving game with Ansonia.
Naugatuck is scheduled to travel down to Ansonia to take on the Chargers on Nolan Field at 10:30 a.m. with an NVL championship hanging in the balance.
