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FCIAC

New Canaan 55, Westhill 12: Strong First Half Sign Of Encouragement For Marinelli

Dave Ruden

10.05.2015

New Canaan's Peter Swindell makes one of his two touchdown catches against Westhill. (Photo: Chris Cody)

New Canaan’s Peter Swindell makes one of his two touchdown catches against Westhill. (Photo: Chris Cody)

NEW CANAAN — Michael Collins’ performance in the FCIAC’s version of Monday Night Football was much like this season as a whole, slow to get started. It remains to be seen if the league will get as hot as New Canaan’s strong-armed quarterback, who completed touchdown passes on five straight first-half possessions in a 55-12 win over Westhill.

“I think we just lost a little focus early,” said Collins, who has 16 touchdown passes and the potential to start another rewrite of the school record book. “I don’t know what it was. Maybe being on a Monday night. We picked it up. Everything was good from there.”

Marinelli said a social media war over the weekend fueled his 3-0 team. The game was postponed from Friday because of a rainstorm even though the other league games were played as scheduled. Westhill was unhappy about it and apparently there was a battle of words on Twitter.

New Canaan offensive tackle Lucas Niang advances the ball after recovering a fumble. (Photo: Chris Cody)

New Canaan offensive tackle Lucas Niang advances the ball after recovering a fumble. (Photo: Chris Cody)

“We still have a long way to go, but it was good to answer the tweets on the field,” Marinelli said. “I was worried, I thought this was going to be a trap game. I think the tweets motivated the kids more than I did.”

None of this altered the outcome. The Vikings (1-2), like Bridgeport Central and Ridgefield before them, lacked the personnel to keep up with one of the defending state champions, though coach Frank Marcucio should be happy with the effort and a couple of nice scoring passes involving a pair of sophomores, quarterback Kevin Costello to Noldylens Metayer.

Marinelli was particularly pleased with his team’s overall performance before removing the starters very late in the first half.

Westhill's Aaron Pettiford runs through a hole in the first half against New Canaan. (Photo: Chris Cody)

Westhill’s Aaron Pettiford runs through a hole in the first half against New Canaan. (Photo: Chris Cody)

“Our kids took it to a whole different level,” Marinelli said.

Asked if it was still hard to assess where his team stands, Marinelli added, “I got a real read tonight. That was one of the best halves of football since I’ve been here. They had something to prove and came out and proved it.”

The Rams might be the least-talked-about No. 2 team in state history, due in large part to this rhythmless season. There was the opening-week bye and another one coming next weekend.

“Byes are never fun,” said Collins, who threw two scoring passes to Peter Swindell, two to Andrew DeFranco and one to Matt Cognetta. “You just want to play games. It’s funky this year. We started late, got this game pushed back and then the bye.”

New Canaan's Andrew DeFranco makes a diving catch during a 55-12 win over Westhill. (Photo: Chris Cody)

New Canaan’s Andrew DeFranco makes a diving catch during a 55-12 win over Westhill. (Photo: Chris Cody)

Right now it looks like Darien and New Canaan occupy their own level. Staples would appear currently to be right behind, with the chance to prove otherwise later in the year when they face the Blue Wave.

The Rams’ most difficult game before meeting Darien on Thanksgiving will be the sure-to-be-hyped-to-the-max Marinelli Bowl against Greenwich. John Marinelli, the former New Canaan offensive coordinator, first-year Cardinals coach and youngest of his father’s three children, was at Dunning Field Monday, not inconspicuous in his Greenwich hoodie and hat.

Right now all New Canaan can do is play the next team on the schedule, when there is a game on the schedule.

“How good is Westhill, how good is Central, I think Ridgefield is pretty decent,” Marinelli said. “We really haven’t played the top quality in the league yet. I think we’re getting better.”

We know the Rams are top quality, but we don’t know what that means in the big picture.

“I’m happy where we were, though the season is about to be midway over and we will have only played three games,” Marinelli said. “We have a long way to go.”

 

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