Nikki Dysenchuk tore his knee up in Darien’s CIAC Class MM semi-final game against Hillhouse. Five months ago today he had surgery on his left ACL. And today, he played very well in his second game back with the Darien lacrosse team.

(http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localsports/ci_12487218)

Dysenchuk has already played (and studied) his way to a full-ride to Dartmouth. He could have just sat out his senior season and watched his teammates make a run towards FCIAC and CIAC championships. Just goes to show what a fighter Nikki Dysenchuk is.

We are all just witnesses.

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By Tim Parry

Darien RB-LB Nikki Dysenchuk and Bunnell QB Chris Sloat are the BlueStreak Sports Training Fairfield County co-Players of the Week for Week 6 of the 2008 season.

It’s the second time Dysenchuk shared the award, and he is the second two-time recipient of the hardware. Dysenchuk received it in Week 5 last year, 368 days ago. This time it was for 204-yard and 4 touchdown rushing performance in the undefeated Blue Wave’s 41-14 win over Wilton, in which he also intercepted a pass and had a 27 yard reception.

Sloat receives his first award for his performance in a 38-20 win over Notre Dame-Fairfield. he threw for 313 yards and five touchdowns, and only played in the first half of that game.

This week’s runner-up was Matt Grant, WR-DB from Greenwich. He had eight catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns, and two fourth-down tackles that ended drives in the Cardinals’ 13-7 win over Trumbull.

Also nominated in Week 6: John Aminti, Newtown; Nick DeRubio, New Canaan; Camryn Ferrara, Greenwich; Tom McNamara, Warde; Jimmy O’Dea, Ridgefield; John Schule, Trinity Catholic; and Kyle Vacca, Brookfield.

Voting media members included: Rob Adams (WGCH-AM), Bill Bloxsom (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers), Jon Chik (Norwalk Citizen-News), 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), Matt Norlander (New Canaan News-Review), Eliot Schickler (Westport News), Dave Stewart (New Canaan Advertiser), Rob Sullivan (Minuteman Newspapers/Bridgeport Banner), Michael Suppe (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers).

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By Tim Parry

Has a chant of “underrated” ever been chanted at a high school football game? Maybe it’s time Darien got the credit that is due.

The Blue Wave was near flawless against Wilton of Friday night. No turnovers, a balanced offense, some hard hits on defense.

Also, there has been some great game planning by Rob Trifone’s staff, based on what I saw Friday. Darien was able to take Wilton linebacker Joe LaSala out of the action by spreading the field and running Nikki Dysenchuk in the other direction.

And quarterback Matt Wheelock had a field day hitting tall target Brian Kosnik on the alley-oop passes. Not only could he get those jump balls against Wilton’s cornerbacks, but Kosnik was also able to absorb some big hits on the slant plays.

Dysenchuk could not be brought down. He carried the ball 23 times for 204 yards and four touchdowns. He also had a 27-yard reception, and an interception to kill Wilton’s final offensive drive of the first half.

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Shelton quarterback Mike Brighindi has been named BlueStreak Sports Training Fairfield County Player of the Week for his performance Friday against Cheshire.

Brighindi completed 19 of 28 passes for 276 yards and one TD and in a come from behind 35-34 overtime victory on the road. Brighindi led the Gaels on an 82-yard drive in the final two minutes of regulation to tie the score, and completed six of eight for yards on the game-tying drive.

Brighindi will receive his award at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday from BlueStreak Sports Training president Matt Cole.

Nick Cortese of Trinity Catholic, the winner of the award in Week 2, was the runner up. He ran for 216 yards and five touchdowns in the Crusaders double-overtime win over Fairfield Ludlowe.

Also nominated in Week 3: Scott Benzing, WR, Brookfield; Joe Dalla Vecchia, QB, St. Joseph; Nikki Dysenchuk, RB, Darien; Chris Hines, RB, Norwalk; Matt Kelly, CB, Staples; Justin Warzoha, QB, Greenwich; and Mike Webber, WR, New Milford.

Players are nominated both by football coaches representing teams in Fairfield County. A mimimum of five nominees from a weekly fan poll are also included on a ballot, and the Player of the Week is then selected by members of the Fairfield County sports media community.

The award is presented by the FCIAC Football Blog.

The following media members voted: 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), Matt Norlander (New Canaan News-Review), Dave Ruden (Stamford Advocate), Eliot Schickler (Westport News), Paul Silverfarb (Greenwich Post), Dave Stewart (New Canaan Advertiser), Rob Sullivan (Minuteman Newspapers), Michael Suppe (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers).

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By Tim Parry

Those who know me understand my day job has to come before what I do with the FCIAC Football Blog. And if it wasn’t for Michael Stenger, this would be a contentless Week 3 of the high school football season.

So first I want to thank Mike for doing the McMahon-Greenwich game, and sealing with horrific weather in the process. And to those of you who have been texting me scoring updates, I appreciate it. It was pretty cool to be in Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf and get updates from the Trinity Catholic-Ludlowe and Trumbull-Central games, for example.

And thanks, Mother Nature, for postponing some of these games to Saturday and Sunday. Even though a red eye back from the conference and a lack of sleep on that flight kept me from the afternoon games. And since I was still looking to sleep at 5 p.m., I stayed local last night and went to the Stratford-Notre Dame game at Sacred Heart University.

But enough about me and my inflated ego. Here’s some Week 3 notables:

You can tell a lot about a team based on what they do a week after a big win or a big loss. That is, was it luck, or was it for real. With that in mind:

• Greenwich woke up. The Cardinals said they didn’t come to play against Darien in Week 2, and they took it out on McMahon in Week 3. Here’s the Greenwich Time clip.
• Darien is for real. It would have been very easy to go from an emotional high to a meltdown at Tiger Hollow, but Nikki Dysenchuk had a monster evening. Based on the excitement, my jet lagged self would have had a fourth-quarter adrenaline rush and then fallen asleep behind the wheel on the way home.
• Ridgefield is not dead. The Tigers appeared to be baffled after New Canaan slammed them last Friday night. But they put up a fight against the Blue Wave and actually held a 15-14 halftime lead. Here’s the clip of that game from The News-Times.
• New Canaan is human. Let’s face it: The Rams offense isn’t going to put up 40+ points in every game. And kudos to Danbury for holding New Canaan to 21. But the Rams defense also kept Stuart Armstrong from having another big day on offense. More from The Advocate.
• Bunnell got a wake-up call. Could have been very easy for the Bulldogs to sleep-walk there way over to Weston and lose. And that almost happened. Bunnell trailed 25-6 at one point and willed its way to a 30-25 win. If you got a subscription or a credit card, you can read The Hour’s take.
• Oxford can compete. Yes, Bethel is 3-0, but its head coach, Chris DeCarlo, says the Wolverines outplayed them. Here’s The News-Times’ piece.

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Check out Nikki Dysenchuk’s new hardware! Not only did he get that fantastic looking FCIAC Football Blog and BlueStreak Sports Training Player of the Week performance t-shirt, but a trophy that’s about as huge as the Heisman!

I stopped by Darien High School with BlueStreak’s Matt Cole yesterday to drop off Dysenchuk’s award with Blue Wave head coach Rob Trifone, and he was thrilled as well. Dysenchuk was in class though, and received the trophy from Trifone later in the day.

I also picked of Central running back Cordero Diaz’s package, and will give him his trophy and shirt Sunday. I’m sure he’ll be as thrilled, too. Right now it’s on my dining room table, awaiting me to set up a photo studio and shoot the infamous new award.

So how do you get nominated for the award? Your coach, or any coach, needs to nominate you! So if you feel you had a great game this week, or feel a teammate excelled on the field, have a coach send a nomination to vote@fciacfootballblog.com. Some schools have designated an assistant coach, other head coaches have grabbed me at games and said, “I want to nominate this guy!”

Either way, we don’t want to see anyone lose out on a chance to win.

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Bridgeport Central running back Cordero Diaz and Darien running back-defensive back Nikki Dysenchuk were named Co-Players of the Week by The FCIAC Football Blog and BlueStreak Sports Training.

Diaz came off the bench due to injuries and paced the Hilltoppers to a 42-41 win over Stamford. he carried the ball 24 times for 224 yards and three touchdowns.

Dysenchuk had two interceptions, knocked down a fourth down pass in the end zone, and came up with a key stop to stall a St. Joseph drive.  He also carried the ball six times for  101 yards, including a back-breaking 73-yard touchdown, in the Blue Wave’s 21-3 win over previously-undefeated St. Joseph.

Both Diaz and Dysenchuk will receive a trophy and a performance t-shirt courtesy of BlueStreak.

Other Week 5 nominees were:

Brendan Fitzpatrick, WR, New Canaan
Evan Rosenstein, DB, New Canaan
Chris Evans, WR, Stamford
Brian Hubbert, WR, Trinity Catholic

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