ROCKY HILL, July 7 – The future of the Northwest Conference and the Nutmeg Conference could be in jeopardy with the report that Rocky Hill has applied to join the NCCC. "The coaches got together and we talked and the majority of the coaches wanted to go to the NCCC," Rocky Hill football coach David Coyne said. "So that's where we applied." Farmington left the NWC and begins play in the Central Connecticut Conference this fall. Berlin, RHAM, Plainville and Middletown have reportedly applied to join the CCC.
That leaves just Northwest Catholic, East Catholic and St. Paul in the Northwest Conference. Enfield, a member of the NCCC, plays football in the Nutmeg but if the NCCC continues to grow, they may be forced to leave at some point in the future. But at this point with no official words from any league officials, it is all pure speculation. Play for the 2008 Nutmeg Conference title begins in September.
BRISTOL, March 25 – St. Paul junior running back Marcus Aiken is being recruited by the University of Connecticut football program, the Bristol Press reported. The paper said that Aiken was recently offered a full scholarship to play with the Huskies in 2009. In the final seven games, Aiken rushed for 933 yards on 122 carries last fall. He played at receiver for the first three games.
BURLINGTON, Jan. 9 – Lewis Mills had hired a coach for its new football program. Chris Machol, a former assistant coach at Farmington High, will lead the team when it begins practice in August. Mills will field a junior varsity team this fall. Varsity players will continue to play with St. Paul and Goodwin Tech in the tri-op squad. Current Mills juniors, sophomore and freshman players with St. Paul will have the option to play with St. Paul or join the Mills squad.
BRISTOL, Nov. 23 – The Falcons won just two games this year but St. Paul/Goodwin Tech/Lewis Mills coach Jude Kelly saw the success achieved this fall. "When you're building a house, nobody thinks of all the hard work it took to build its foundation. All anyone sees is the end result," Kelly told the Bristol Press. "But what the kids on this team have done this year is build that foundation." There were just eight seniors on the team. "I look back at the year and see that we did have tremendous improvement across the board. There were games where we certainly would have liked to play better, but all and all, this team did good things for the program," Kelly said.
BRISTOL, Nov. 22 – Marcus Aiken ran for a co-op record 213 yards on 17 carries and scored four TDs to lead St. Paul/Goodwin Tech/Lewis Mills to a 42-7 win over Wilcox Tech of Meriden in a Thanksgiving Day game at St. Paul High. Aiken snapped the old co-op record of 205 yards set by Juan Hernandez against St. Bernard in 2003.
Aiken rushed for 163 yards on 12 carries in the first half and three TDs. He rambled for gains of 30 yards or more twice and broke 10 yards seven times. “Coach [Jude] Kelly told us that maybe we weren't able to achieve all our goals this year, but let's go out there and win this last game. We all knew that we had to play well. We wanted to win this one for our seniors," Aiken told the Bristol Press.
"I'm happy for the kids," Falcons coach Jude Kelly told the Press. "They've continued to put the work in everyday. It was a good win for them and the entire program." Wilcox Tech (5-5) completed its first varsity campaign.
BURLINGTON, Nov. 13 – Lewis Mills is going to start its own football team. The Region 10 Board of Education voted to approve a junior varsity team beginning in 2008. Currently, any Mills students interested in playing football play on the St. Paul co-op team along with students from Goodwin Tech. Mills has been with the St. Paul co-op for three seasons (2005-07). Mills had 21 players with St. Paul this year, the largest of the three schools.
Current Mills juniors, sophomore and freshman players with St. Paul will have the option to play with St. Paul or join the Mills squad.
Mills will play all of its games on the road and parent contributions, fundraisers, booster club donations and money from the Region 10 school board will fund the squad. Mills officials expect 30 freshmen and sophomores on the team next fall.
ROCKY HILL, Nov. 9 – Rocky Hill senior Dan Carducci wasn’t aware of his record-setting effort in the Terriers’ 40-14 rout of the Falcons. He was too busy having fun, scoring 4 TDs, breaking tackles and knocking down passes. He set several new school records including most yards rushing in a game (253 yards), most points scored in a game (26) and most yards rushing in a season (1,302). He also batted down a pair of passes in the first quarter that were nearly touchdown passes for St. Paul.
St. Paul’s offense was able to move the ball but its defense struggled to stop the Terriers (7-2, 7-2 Nutmeg). QB Brian Kaczynski completed 17-of-31 passes for 134 yards. Ryan Moore pulled down seven passes for 66 yards. Kaczynski set a new co-op record for most completions in a game, breaking the old single-game mark of 16 set by Scott Dumont against N.W. Catholic in 2001.
The Falcons (1-8, 1-8) were calling timeouts in the final minutes, savoring every opportunity to play. Rob Cannata caught a nine-yard pass from Kaczynski and Goodwin Tech student Winston Jones scored his first career TD with a 65-yard kickoff return in the final minute.
“We weren’t able to make big plays,” St. Paul coach Jude Kelly said. “If the defense can’t stop them, it can get out of hand pretty fast. Still, we continue to fight and improve. I feel bad for the kids.”
SP: Davon Davis 59 pass from Brian Kaczynski (Moore kick), 6:30
Third quarter
SP: Aiken 42 pass from Kaczynski (Moore kick), 5:25
WT: Nicholas Pizzuti 37 run (Evan Nava kick), 0:00
Fourth quarter
SP: Winston Jones 15 fumble return (Moore kick), 4:02
Individual statistics
RUSHING: St. Paul – Marcus Aiken 17-213, Davon Davis 4-23, Tom Ivers 4-9, Brian Kaczysnki 1-2; Wilcox – Jeffrey Vidal 16-87, Mitchell Cardillo 1-3, Christian Caban 9-22, Taylor Stec 7-22, Evan Nava 1-1, Nicholas Pizzuti 3-47
PASSING: St. Paul – Brian Kaczynski 6-8-0, 183, Wilcox – Taylor Stec 0-5-2, 0
RECEIVING: St. Paul – Ryan Moore 3-73, Davon Davis 2-68, Marcus Aiken 1-42
Individual leaders
Final, 10 games
RUSHING Att-Yds TDs
Aiken 122-933 6
Davis 43-68 0
Kaczynski 41-8 1
Moore 2- (-1) 0
Ivers 4-9 0
PASSING C-Att-Int Yds TDs
Kaczynski 116-236-10 1809 17
RECEIVING C-Yds TD
Moore 42-790 5
Aiken 31-476 7
Davis 19-241 2
Cannata 19-198 3
Cruz 7-95 0
Adamski 1-7 0
POINTS
TDs PAT 2pt Pts
Aiken* 6-7 0 1 94
Moore 0-5 16 0 46
Cannata 0-3 0 2 22
Davis 0-3 0 0 18
Jones*** 0-0 0 0 12
Kaczynski 1-0 0 0 6
Durica ** 0-0 0 0 6
Adamski 0-0 1 0 1
*Interception return and kickoff return for TD
**Block punt return for TD
***Fumble return for TD, punt return for TD
Rocky Hill 40, St. Paul 14
At Rocky Hill
Rocky Hill (7-2) 20 14 6 0 – 40
SP/GT/LM (1-8) 0 0 0 14 – 14
First quarter
RH: Dan Carducci 28 run (kick blocked), 8:36
RH: Carducci 92 run (run fails), 4:22
RH: Fernando Sanchez 22 pass from Josh Esposito (Carducci run), 38.9
Second quarter
RH: Frank Carlson 14 pass from Esposito (Joey Cavallaro kick), 4:06
RH: Carducci 58 pass from Esposito (Cavallaro kick), 07.6
Third quarter
RH: Carducci 37 run (kick fails), 53.4
Fourth quarter
SP: Rob Cannata 9 pass from Brian Kaczynski (run fails), 2:38
SP: Winston Jones 65 punt return (Cannata pass from Kaczynski), 1:00
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Rocky Hill – Dan Carducci 15-253, Josh Esposito 2-14, Fernando Sanchez 12-133, Frank Carlson 2-3, Ahmed Osman 1-minus 5, Nick Pizzo 3-minus 1, Will Roccanello 2-8, Joey Cavallaro 1-0; SP – Marcus Aiken 21-114, Brian Kaczysnki 6-minus 12
PASSING: Rocky Hill – Josh Esposito 3-3-0, 78 ; SP – Brian Kaczynski 17-31-1, 134
RECEIVING: Rocky Hill – Fernando Sanchez 1-22, Carducci 1-58, Frank Carlson 1-14; SP – Davon Davis 4-39, Ryan Moore 7-66, Rob Cannata 4-13, Marcus Aiken 2-16
Plainville 34, St. Paul 21
At Bristol
Plainville0 12 6 16 – 34
St. Paul 7 6 0 8 – 21
First quarter
SP: Aiken 5 run (Moore kick), 5:26
Second quarter
P: Soltis 55 run (kick fails), 7:51
SP: Cannata 13 pass from Kaczynski (kick fails), 3:35
P: Mack Litke 17 pass from Carroll (run fails), 0:52
Third quarter
P: Soltis 3 run (run fails), 3:37
Fourth quarter
P: Soltis 3 run (Soltis run), 4:32
P: Soltis 71 run (Carroll run), 3:04
SP: Davis 35 pass from Kaczynski (Aiken run), 1:01
Individual statistics
RUSHING: St. Paul – Aiken 21-142, Davis 1-2, Kaczynski 1-11, Moore 1-0; Plainville -- Soltis 29-228, Carroll 4-11, Sparks 14-57, Acca 5-26
PASSING: St. Paul – Kaczynski 12-29-1, 170; Plainville -- Carroll 4-11-0, 54
RECEIVING: St. Paul – Aiken 1-14, Davis 2-40, Moore 2-22, Cannata 5-67, Cruz 2-27; Plainville -- Litke 4-54
Farmington 35, SP 14
At Farmington
St. Paul (1-6)7 0 7 0 – 14
Farmington (4-3) 7 7 14 7 – 35
First quarter
SP: Ryan Moore 51 pass from Brian Kaczynski (Ryan Moore kick), 0:26
F: Matt D’Annible 17 run (Travis Church kick), 8:24
Second quarter
F: Eric Morrissey 14 run (Church kick), 3:02
Third quarter
F: Morrissey 44 run (Church kick), 5:49
S: Moore 86 pass from Kaczynski (Moore kick), 5:29
F: Matt Robinson 14 run (Chuch kick), 0:01
Fourth quarter
F: Alex Wolf 24 pass from Morrissey (Church kick), 8:00
Individual statistics
RUSHING: St. Paul -- Marcus Aiken 6-75, Brian Kaczynski 7-minus 5, Farmington -- Tebucky Jones 4-20, Matt Robinson 19-186, Eric Morrissey 14-67, Mark D'Annibale 5-33, John Mittica 6-18
PASSING: St. Paul -- Brian Kaczynski 15-28-2, 287; Farmington -- Eric Morrissey 4-8-1, 61
RECEIVING: St. Paul -- Ryan Moore 5-167, Davon Davis 2-9, Marcus Aiken 3-62, Rob Cannata 3-24, Kyle Cruz 2-25; Farmington -- C.J. Howard 3-39, Jeff Armington 1-22
Middletown 38, SP 33
At Middletown
St. Paul (1-5) 21 0 6 6 -- 33
Middletown (6-0) 14 7 14 13 -- 48
First quarter
M: Reggie Allen 35 run (Case Garner kick), 9:32
SP: Marcus Aiken 14 pass from Brian Kaczynski (Ryan Moore kick), 7:31
SP: Jordan Durica 12 blocked punt return (Moore kick), 5:47
SP: Moore 45 pass from Kaczynski (Moore kick), 3:29
Second quarter
M: Lorenzo Baker 1 run (Garner kick), 5:10
Third quarter
M: Baker 2 run (Garner kick), 8:16
M: Ephraim Watson 45 run (Garner kick), 5:26
SP: Davon Davis 5 pass from Kaczynski (kick failed), 0:05
Fourth quarter
M: Watson 38 run (pass failed), 7:15
M: Baker 44 run (Garner kick), 2:54
SP: Aiken 90 kickoff return (pass fails), 2:40
Individual statistics
RUSHING: St. Paul – Aiken 35-134; Davis 1-5, Kaczynski 4-7; Middletown – Baker 22-201, Allen 6-84, Watson 16-124
PASSING: St. Paul – Kaczynski 10-22-0, 125; Middletown – Watson 5-9-0, 62
RECEIVING: St. Paul – Davis 3-7, Aiken 1-14, Moore 6-104; Middletown – Allen 3-18, Baker 1-35; Robert Fasciani 1-9
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Lg. Over.
