Ruden Sports News

Ben Rolapp passed for 220 yards and three touchdown passes tonight in Darien’s 35-26 hard-fought victory at Wilton.

Yet it wasn’t until Rolapp broke off a 34-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes could the No. 3 ranked team in the state poll even think about exhaling.

“We knew that team was going to be good,” Darien coach Andy Grant said. “We weren’t concerned about their record. We saw how physical they play and they’re probably the best schematic offense I’ve seen in the state. We knew we had to bring our A game. Before EJ (DiNunzio) got here, Wilton had a decade of being mediocre. He has done a fantastic job the last five years.”

Darien’s offense brought its A game in the first half.

Darien’s defense brought its A game in the second half.

That would be enough in a battle that lasted two hours, 58 minutes. Lots of penalties. Lots of first downs. Lots of passing.

Darien would improve to 6-1, head toward its annual Thanksgiving showdown with New Canaan and a shot at a Class L title.

The Warriors, who advanced to the 2023 Class MM state finals, dropped to 3-4 and essentially finds itself out of the playoffs this year. Class MM, filled with a myriad of schools of varying talent, has 10 teams with zero or one loss and a couple more with only two defeats. And there’s eight playoff spots.

The Warriors were caught at the tail end of a hellacious three-week stretch. The Warriors stunned then-No. 1 Greenwich, 20-17, but the elation of that victory ended with a 32-0 loss to New Canaan.

As tonight rolled around, it was fairly evident if Wilton was to have any sort of real shot at a playoff berth, it would have to do something special against Darien.

The Warriors surely tried.

“I lost my starting linebacker in the second quarter, Jack Schwartz, the heart and soul of my team,” DiNunzio said. “He’s averaging 11 tackles a game. I lose Ethan Bailey, my corner. Right before the game, I lost my outside backer Connor McAndrews, his knee, couldn’t go. Hey, everybody has injuries, but for my guys, who are undersized, banged up, to put forth that effort against that team, words can’t describe it. My kids played their hearts out. We were just a play and a half, two plays short.”

The scoring arrived fast and furious in the first half.

Wilton needed only three plays to go 58 yards in 30 seconds to open the game. Joey Hagerty found Jake Padilla for a 23-yard touchdown pass.

Darien immediately struck back on a 75-yard scoring drive capped by Rolapp’s first TD strike to Thom from the 7-yard line. The Blue Wave lead would grow to 14-7 before the end of the first quarter when Rolapp found Thom again from the 3. That score was set up by a beautiful 36-yard pass to Tyler Spellman to the Warriors’ 5.

“Charlie’s amazing,” Rolapp said. “He’s kind of a Swiss Army knife.”

Wilton sliced the lead to one point on a quarterback keeper by Hagerty with 8:15 left in the second quarter. The extra point attempt was blocked.

Darien appeared poised to take over the game after Thom plunged over from the 1 for his third TD and Rolapp found Kevin Roche in the corner of the end zone with 23 seconds left in the half.

That was time enough for Alan Osta to return a kickoff 85 yards and cut Darien’s halftime lead to 28-20.

“The offense played well in the first half,” Rolapp said. “The defense played bad the first half. It was vice versa in the second half. It gives us something to work on in the coming weeks to have a complete game.” 

Grant put it a little more diplomatically.

“We contributed really well with each other,” he said. “The first half, the defense needed to be picked up. The offense did a really good job. The second half, the offense struggled and our defense played really, really hard. We were in some tough situations and they held, they held, they held.”

There would be only two touchdowns in the second half.

Cael Dexter got behind Darien’s Wes Scallen to pull in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Hagerty with 4:42 remaining in the third period to make it 28-26. Yet when Wilton went for two, Scallen immediately responded by stuffing a pitch to Osta well short of the goal line.

 “Joey was banged up after the Greenwich game,” DiNunzio said. “He had a poor game (against New Canaan). He was suffering. I knew he’d bounce back and have a good game. We wanted him to get the ball out as quick as he could. That defensive front for Darien is one of the best I’ve seen.”

Lots of passes. Lots of flags. Lots of big stops. Finally, Rolapp broke off the touchdown run. Ryan McGahren and Ben Curtis would follow with interceptions to seal the victory.

“Props to Ben Curtis, going both ways, giving me a lead block there on my run,” Rolapp said.

“Rolapp showed he’s not just going to throw the ball down the field,” Grant said. “You have to respect his ability to run. He’s a really tough runner. Curtis definitely played the most snaps on our team. He’s so resilient. Rolapp gets Ben Curtis lined up, because he’s new to the position. Down the stretch we really leaned on those kids.”

DiNunzio was left pondering the killer lineup of Greenwich, New Canaan and Darien his team had just faced.

“We’re a MM school, we’re playing LL, L, L, the three best teams in the state three weeks in a row,” DiNunzio said. “Done it for 3-4 years. I’ll play anybody anywhere. Just space it out. I don’t have 100 players. You got up against Greenwich, that wears you down. We’re small. Then New Canaan wears you down. We’re small. We’re going into this game with 4-5 guys who can’t play. We’ll play anybody anywhere. FCIAC football is fantastic. Just gives us a break between those teams.”

And being in Class MM against teams playing distinctly inferior opponents? With a point system that can’t come close to making up the differential?

“Don’t even get me started on that,” DiNunzio said.