FCIAC Football Blog

Their football careers may be over, but four former FCIAC football players had the honor of playing in the first event at the new Meadowlands Stadium yesterday.

Two of those players, North Carolina attack Jimmy Dunster and Princeton defenseman Jonathan Myers, were teammates at Greenwich. Paul Silverfarb of Greenwich Post was there on the field, so we’ll soon get their reaction to playing in the new home of the NFL’s New York Jets and New York Giants (No rush, Paul, I know you’re a busy man!).

Also playing yesterday: Matt White of Ridgefield, who helped lead No. 1 Virginia past Dunster’s No. 2 North Carolina, and Pat Dowling of Ludlowe, a third-year starting defenseman at Delaware.

Congratulations to Ridgefield, your FCIAC lacrosse champion. And believe it or not, only the FIFTH school to capture an FCIAC title: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localsports/ci_12506189

Matt White’s legend at Jack Casagrande Field continued last night. The Virginia-bound attack scored the game-winner in overtime. You can go back to White’s sophomore year in football for some of his heroics there. He took the game against McMahon over in the fourth quarter and led the Tigers to a big win.

I’ll go off-topic and write about Matt White and Ridgefield lacrosse. When I interviewed White for this article (http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_12487220), he told me he was excited that the FCIAC Football Blog was coming back.

Plus, Ridgefield is not participating in spring football. But much more to come really soon about the Tigers, its program and its staff.

Kurt Ondash has been voted the BlueStreak Sports Training Fairfield County Player of the Week for Thanksgiving Week.

The award, presented by the FCIAC Football Blog, went to Ondash for his performance against Darien in the FCIAC Championship Game. Ondash caught three passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns, had an interception, and defended three passes in New Canaan’s 28-20 win in front of 9,500 at Boyle Stadium.

Nine of the 14 media members who had the final ballot voted for Ondash.

Week 12 runner-ups were Giovanny Marmolejos (Central), Mike Pope (Trumbull), Richie Edwards (Trumbull), Matt White (Ridgefield), Nate Quinn (New Canaan), Matt Grant (Greenwich), Frank Wright (Wright Tech/Stamford Academy), and Andrew Fiamengo (New Fairfield).

The following media members voted: Rob Adams (WGCH-AM), Bill Bloxsom (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers), Zachary Eastright (WSTC-AM/WNLK-AM), Dan Farrand (News-Times), Scott Ferrari (Greenwich Citizen), Andy Hutchison (Newtown Bee), Jason A. Intrieri (FCIAC Football Blog Live), Ken Morse (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers), John Nash (The Stamford Times), Joe Ryan (freelancer), Eliot Schickler (Westport News), Dave Stewart (New Canaan Advertiser), Rob Sullivan (Minuteman Newspapers/Bridgeport Banner), Michael Suppe (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers).

By Tim Parry

Norwalk is 6-3 this season after a win Saturday against Ridgefield. And Ridgefield dropped to 6-3 with that 24-10 loss. But for both teams, it’s turned into a what could have been theme this season.

Norwalk hasn’t been a premiere team for at least a decade, and suddenly the Bears were in the preseason spotlight. They were the talk of the media, with D-I recruit DJ Morrell anchoring the line, Chris Hines in the backfield, and a defense led by Shawnelle Philo, and were ranked in the Top 10 in the state polls for the preseason.

And Norwalk flopped coming out of the gate, losing first to Norwalk on a last-second field goal, and then to Wilton in Week 2. And in Week 5, it appeared everything had fallen apart when the Bears were dismantled by New Canaan.

Ridgefield had been in the spotlight and for a second year of the Matt-White-at-quarterback era. Based on what the lacrosse team did in the spring (several lax players are on the football team, including Virginia-bound White) it seemed that momentum could carry over to the gridiron.

Ridgefield got huge wins over Staples and Greenwich in back-to-back weeks, but those followed losses to the FCIAC’s two undefeated teams, New Canaan and Darien.

But more about the game. Weather conditions had nothing to do with the outcome, neither did the 11 a.m. start time. Nor did the 20 minute halftime show by the Marching Bears (which, by the way, should not be the only reason people go to a Norwalk football game).

It did come down to a swarming Norwalk defense making things rough for the Ridgefield offense, and the shiftiness of Hines.

Critics (including me) say Hines gets impatient in the backfield, and picks up big yardage against weak defenses. But he’s more patient than we all think. He’s got a great field of vision, and an elusiveness that allows him to bounce off tacklers and break away for big yardage.

Hines’ biggest play came when it was least expected, and turned the game around. With 1:41 left in the first half, Hines grabbed Matt Baker’s coffin-corner punt before it could go out of bounds and raced 88 yards untouched for a tie-breaking touchdown.

Had Hines not raced in to grab the line-drive punt, it most-likely would have gone out of bounds inside the 5-yard line, and given the Norwalk offense little wiggle room to work with.

Postgame comments (including press members Matt Doran of The Hour and freelance writer/Newtown Bee sports editor Andy Hutchison):

• Chris Hines
• Pete Tucci
• Kevin Callahan

By Tim Parry

Last night I did something subconsciously while writing the Ridgefield-Staples game story up for The Advocate.I did not include the successive words “Matt White.”

Sure, Matt White started at quarterback as he has for the past two seasons. But for what may have been the first time since 2006, Matt White was not the story for Ridgefield.

And no matter how you slice it, that could be a good thing for Ridgefield. And that’s not a knock against Matt White. It’s a complement to the team.

All too many times, it’s appeared Ridgefield has relied on White to get the job done. Whether it’s with some athletic move or form of magic, his teammates have always seemed tentative to get the job done themselves.

You don’t believe me? Look at White’s coming out party two years ago at New Canaan, when he guided the Tigers to its first win in that town in ages. Or last season at McMahon, when White took matters into his own hands to lead a fourth-quarter comeback.

After jumping out to a 16-0 lead just four minutes into the game, White’s teammates allowed him to just be an emotional leader, and a manager of the game.

So why is this a good thing? It helps develop a program. It lets the league know there’s no I in team, It let the FCIAC know that Drew Arcoleo is a game-breaker, and Charlie Gravitte can chase the quarterback down. Or that when Ridgefield wants to kill the clock, it can rely on Michael McKnight to hold on to the ball. Or that Jimmy O’Dea has gone from being one of the best kickers into the league to a threat on both sides of the ball.

It means Ridgefield is more than a one-dimensional team. And that White as a spiritual leader can keep his team fired up for four quarters.