By Tim Parry
King did not come home from West Hartford with a New England Prep School Athletic Conference championship. It didn’t take home the big trophy after the Sampson-Lourden Bowl. It lost 29-14 to a much bigger, much deeper Milton Academy team.
But Fairfield County should be proud of the King football program. It’s not every season that one of its Fairchester Athletic Association teams makes it to one of the five NEPSAC title games, and its not every season that a team like King could dominate so many of its opponents.
And by all means, King left everything on the Kingswood-Oxford School field yesterday. Including tears. Sure, some would say there’s no crying in football, but I’d rather see a team wear its heart on its sleeve like it did yesterday than take an oh-well approach when failing to win a title.
Here’s the article I did for the Stamford Advocate, and it includes some great photos by Kathleen O’Rourke (who didn’t catch me “chimping,” but did almost impale me with her monopod a couple of times, but she apologized and that’s cool!). And here’s the sidebar by Joe Ryan, which focuses on two senior captains, Vincent Love and Matt Santoro.
Milton head coach Kevin MacDonald and fullback Josh Scott, who was a one-person wrecking ball, had nothing but respect for King’s Big Three – Silas Redd, Kevin Pierre-Louis and Eric Joyner. They knew that the key to the game was to control the ball, and then find a way to contain those three Division I prospects.
And the overall numbers may have not shown it, but sophomore quarterback Mikey Serricchio did a very good job running the offense. And statistically, he did have a better day than counterpart Chris Amrheim, who completed just one of 11 passes.
Though I saw King in the preseason, I wasn’t convince a team like King could compete in the FCIAC. But after watching yesterday, I honestly didn’t see as many holes as I felt it had. And that was with a few key players in street clothes because of injuries yesterday.
What’s your opinion of King? Sound off on this thread on the FCIAC Football Blog’s boards.
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November 16th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
It was a sad end to a successful season for the boys. Milton was much larger in size and numbers. They suited at least 60 kids and played at least 40. Their RB Scott was not getting hit until he was several yards deep. Over time they wore King down.
However, the King kids proved that they could play with the big boys, unfortunately not for 4 quarters. They made several big plays to take the lead and if they had capitalized on several Milton mistakes, the game could have easily gone their way. Milton is well coached and showed patience and heart sticking to their war of attrition gameplan.
Hat’s off to a great season and hopefully this bitter taste motivates them for next year.
Tim, how do you think Milton would do in the FCIAC?