Ruden Sports News

On a night when the offense struggled against an injury-depleted yet determined opponent it could not shake, the Greenwich football team rode a strong effort by the special teams and particularly the defense to survive a battle of top 10 opponents.

The Cardinals, ranked No. 5 in the GameTimeCT poll, capitalized on two interception returns for touchdowns and got a third score after recovering a muffed punt on the 3-yard line to come away with a 23-14 win over No. 10 St. Joseph at Cardinal Stadium.

“Sometimes a great defense is the best offense,” Greenwich coach Anthony Morello said. “Today we needed our defense to pick us up when offensively we couldn’t get out of own way. We couldn’t throw the ball, couldn’t run the ball, we couldn’t align right but our defense took care of our points with two scores and our special teams, which have been great all year, were outstanding.”

The Cadets (5-2), who were without several starters, including quarterback HT Jones, who remained in concussion protocol, and lost more during the game, demonstrated their season-long resilience and got within 17-14 on Martin Broz’s 46-yard touchdown pass to TJ Wright with 5:48 left in the third quarter.

The score stayed that way through several changes in possessions, until Greenwich’s second interception of the fourth quarter and third of the game, by Justin Carroll, who returned it 25 yards for a touchdown with 3:46 left to put the Cardinals (6-1) up by two scores.

Carroll, a sophomore, produced defensive points after Santi Parra, a junior, had his own pick-six in the first quarter for a quick 10-0 lead. The pair are part of nine new starters who have had an impact as the regular season turns toward the homestretch.

Parra’s brother, Sebastian, was one of the Cardinals’ defensive leaders the last two years.

“It’s a lot of pressure on him to replace his brother and, you know, follow in his footsteps and he’s done a great job solidifying himself in this defense,” Morello said. “Between him and Justin Carroll, these two guys being thrust into a very complicated defense, where the linebackers have a lot of responsibilities, tonight was a microcosm of the work they put in, in the offseason and the regular season.”

The performances were important on a night the offense could not get untracked.

“Everything just correlates to practice,” Parra said. “If you do good in practice you do good in the game. And that’s what we did. We had a good week of practice and we won the game. On my interception I saw the ball coming to me and I always want the ball. In practice I say let me play running back. I got the ball and I needed to score.”

Julian Ravina’s field goal to open the scoring for Greenwich came following a short punt by the Cadets, and the lone offensive score, MJ D’Angelo’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Blake Martin in the second quarter, came on a muffed punt.

“The offensive side of me is frustrated but I can’t show the frustration because our guys are frustrated,” Morello said. “The linemen are frustrated, the receivers are frustrated, the quarterback is frustrated but, you know, it’s a game of points, right? And it’s not always gonna be pretty but we led the entire football game and that’s what we tried to tell them. We are in front right now.”

The Cadets are in the midst of their most difficult stretch of the schedule. They lost to Darien two weeks ago, 14-0, a game that bore many similarities to tonight, and the one when Jones was injured. They shut out Ridgefield last week and play Staples next Saturday. They had allowed just 34 points in their first six games as the defense remains one of the state’s best.

“They are tough, they play hard and they give you everything,” St. Joseph coach Joe Della Vecchia said. “(Greenwich) is so much bigger than us in every position. I was watching them shake hands and every guy is just bigger than the next one. We battled all night and, honestly, we blew the game. We gave it away, two pick-sixes and a fumble on a punt. Those things shouldn’t happen.”