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).
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):
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.
If there’s anything Ridgefield head coach hates, it’s orange jerseys. But a few hours before his team kicked off to Staples last night, he had a box of them for his team.
Now Callahan said his team was focused on Staples this week, but just maybe the new threads gave Ridgefield the final bit of motivation it needed to beat Staples for the first time in his coaching career.
Ridgefield didn’t just defeat the Wreckers. Ridgefield dominated the Wreckers 37-6.
“We walk into the equipment room two hours before the game and Coach Callahan pulls out a surprise,” Ridgefield quarterback Matt White said. “And we figure we better get a win with these new jerseys.”
Heck, Ridgefield stormed out of the gate. Ridgefield got a safety, and then a 65-yard touchdown on the ensuing free kick by Drew Arcoleo. Arcoleo then scored on a 40-yard touchdown run on Ridgefield’s first offensive play, giving the Tigers a 16-0 lead just four minutes into the game.
“You can’t spot a team like that a 16-0 lead like that four minutes into the game,” Staples head coach Marce Petroccio said. “You have to give Ridgefield all the credit in the world, but we just made every mistake you can possibly make on both sides of the ball.”
White, for the record, completed just three of nine passes for 31 yards. But with Ridgefield getting the big lead and Arcoleo getting off to the strong start, White said he was fine with keeping the ball on the ground.
“He’s getting the job done, you’ve got to keep feeding him,” White said.
Arcoleo finished with 69 yards on 12 carries, and fullback Michael McKnight had 105 on 13.
The Ridgefield defense did most of the damage. They forced five Staples turnovers, including two fumbles that were recovered by Jimmy O’Dea.
Now it wasn’t all Ridgefield in this one. Brandon Pacilio hit Brendan Rankowitz on a 47-yard bomb. And Pacilio was able to find wide-open receivers downfield. Midway through the second quarter, Staples could have pulled within a touchdown, but a wide-open Matt Kelly couldn’t hang on to a Pacilio pass in the end zone.
Rankowitz finished with five catched for 93 yards.
Are there any New Canaan doubters left? Maybe not after what the Rams did to Ridgefield last night.
Even after a week when many were thinking New Canaan could only throw the ball, and that its defense would have a tough time shutting down Ridgefield quarterback Matt White, the Rams were dominant in a 40-13 win at Dunning Stadium.
And this came six days after New Canaan defeated Trumbull 41-13.
White was rattled by some unfamiliar defensive formations and was picked off four times. He completed just nine of his 27 pass attempts.
And Chris Sciarretta carried 13 times for 98 yards, while Sean Simmons gained 83 yards on seven attempts.
The question is, does this make New Canaan the front-runner for the chance to dethrone FCIAC champion Greenwich (who lost its first in-state game since Thanksgiving 2006 since I started writing this), or will homecoming Saturday be another disaster for the Rams?
Kurt Ondash – who had six catches for 165 yards against Ridgefield and 296 yards in just two games – was on FCIAC Football Blog Live this morning, and shared his thoughts. Click here to listen.
So, is New Canaan able to reload year in and year out because of the players, the coaches, or a little bit of both? Share your thoughts below:
Is there a bigger surprise in Fairfield County boys lacrosse this season that Ridgefield?
After squeaking into the FCIAC and CIAC playoffs last year, the Tigers are undefeated at 9-0. And that includes a first-ever victory over arch-rival Wilton, and an upset win last Monday over national powerhouse Greenwich.
So what’s the difference between this year and last, when Ridgefield went 8-11 on the season?
“Last year we talked to them about expecting to be that good, and they’re really buying into it,” said Ridgefield head coach Andy Stockfisch after the Tigers 12-4 win over St. Joseph on Saturday. “This year they really understand that they need to focus on one game at a time, and treat each game like a business trip.”
And another thing that is helping the Tigers: Stockfisch won’t let the team rest on its laurels.
“There are a number of things that we need to talk about just from this game,” Stockfisch said. “Never let them be satisfied with their performance, no matter how big the win is, how great of a play they make, or the opportunities they have. They need to always want to do better.”
The Tigers take on SWC front-runner New Fairfield tomorrow, a team that features Duke-bound long-stick midfielder C.J. Costabile, the sixth-ranked player in the nation according to TAKKLE.com.
But Ridgefield counters with one of the best attacks in the country as well, Matt White. Ranked 19th in the nation, according to TAKKLE, White, a junior, has already given a verbal commitment to University of Virginia.
And thanks to White, and the team’s undefeated record, Stockfisch thinks his phone will ring often this summer, with college coaches on the other end wanting to find out about the Tigers.
“Any time when you get a team of this caliber that is beating some of the best teams in the state, you’re going to have some players like Matt White who have been seen and going to get seen,” Stockfisch said. “This summer I feel I’ll field 50 calls from college coaches about all sorts of kids on this roster.”
LocalSportsFeed founder Tim Parry sat down with White for an interview after his five-goal, four-assist performance against the Cadets. Here’s what White had to say about the 2008 Tigers, his opportunity to play at Virginia, and about the rumor that he won’t be back for a third season as Ridgefield’s starting quarterback this fall:
You’ve read the game stories in The Hour and The News-Times, now here’s some more from the Ridgefield-Brien McMahon game, won by Ridgefield 10-7 Friday night at Jack Casagrande Field.
Lee Haberlin’s 30-yard field goal with :07 left to play lifted the Tigers to the win, and may have knocked the Senators out of the FCIAC and CIAC playoff pictures. Ridgefield moved to 4-3, McMahon fell to 5-2.
I think a few points were made in this game:
On-paper means nothing if you can’t get it done on the field. My view from the Senators sideline was that the players were not focused on the game. Case in point, after a McMahon three-and-out in the first half, a Senator player came off the field, pointed in the air, and said, “Hey, it’s snowing,” prompting several teammates ton look for the three or four snowflakes that were falling to the turf.
Special teams can never be underrated. Ridgefield and McMahon are two schools that always seem to have strong kicking games. Ridgefield’s stood out on this day. Haberlin was just discovered this week, when he started booting long field goals, and is an excellent compliment to sophomore Jimmy O’Dea, who is handling extra points and kickoffs. Matt Baker pinned the Senators deep in Ridgefield territory on a fourth quarter punt that eventually, thanks to a strong defensive stand, allowed the Tigers to win the field position battle.
McMahon senior quarterback Peter Raymond, a fourth-year starter, is the gunslinger everyone is talking about, but he was clearly out-played by his counterpart, Ridgefield sophomore Matt White. He showed nerves of steel and went 4-for-5 for 30 yards with two rushes for 14 yards on the game winning drive.
Defense Wins Games: Ridgefield head coach Kevin Calahan’s defensive plan was simple – control McMahon’s spread offense. The idea – allow Kenny O’Brien to run the ball, but keep Raymond from hitting the Epps brothers, Anthony and Willie.
In Callahan’s own words:
“We went to camp last year at Central Connecticut and played around with what we call special ops, to defend against the spread package, the real run and shoot type of offense. They’re so fast that you have to defend the field, and not just the box. So what better way to do that than to run the special ops? We’ll give up some rushing yards, but the idea is to make them score in 15 plays, and not five. We were willing to give up the run.”
Not a new offense for the Tigers, but it’s one linebacker Tommy Shaw said the team loves to use. And Ridgefield went with it in its big Week 3 win over New Canaan, and in it’s 8-7 loss to Masuk in Week 2.
Bridgeport Letdown?: Callahan, who lives in Fairfield and has sons on the Fairfield Warde football team, chose to drive home from McMahon instead of taking the bus back to Ridgefield, then home. He said he wished he had taken the bus, as the last second win would have made it a fun trip.
No doubt he’ll drive to Bridgeport’s Kennedy Stadium for this Friday’s game against Bassick. And he’s hoping his kids will have a similar drive back home. He admits he’s a little worried about playing the Lions, who have the state’s longest winless streak at 52. A Ridgefield win would mean Bassick ties a state record in that department, held by Bullard-Havens and ended in 2001.
“Bassick is obviously letting people know that it’s going to happen, it’s a question of who it’s going to be,” Callahan said. “I have to be honest with you, I’ve been to that place (Kennedy Stadium) a few times and don’t like the way we’ve played. I respect them.”
Photo Finish: Click here for the photo album. As always, photos I take for the blog are for sale. 8 X 10s are $15 and 5 X 7s are $8. E-mail me for details or to order.
