Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008 by Killingly Villager

BY BENJAMIN R. KIPP
VILLAGER SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
PUTNAM — It was a rough weekend for
Quiet Corner football teams.When Saturday,
Sept. 13, was concluded, Woodstock, Putnam
and Killingly all lost their season openers.
Woodstock opened at home against
Griswold and was thumped by the
Wolverines 40-8.
Too many turnovers hurt the Centaurs,
giving the ball to the Wolverines six times
total.
“We just made too many mistakes and too
many turnovers,”said Woodstock Academy
head football coach Gary Brine. “We can’t
turn the ball over against good teams, and
Griswold is a good team.”
Two big turnovers that could have turned
into scores were committed deep in Griswold
territory.The first turnover was right before
half when the Centaurs coughed up the ball
while driving on the Griswold 25-yard line.
The second — and probably the one that hurt
the most — was an intercepted pass when the
Centaurs were on the brink of a touchdown
at the Wolverines’ 5-yard line in the third
quarter.
The Centaurs got on the board in the fourth
quarter when Mike Green took the hand-off
and rumbled 19 yards for the late score.
Green got the call again for
the two-point conversion.
Combined, the Centaurs
rushed for nearly 150 total
yards. Green rushed for 39
yards,Nick Orn rushed for 40
yards and Mike Olm rushed
for 62 yards. Despite the loss,
Brine was optimistic about
how the Centaurs moved the
ball.
“We certainly established
ourselves offensively,” he
said.“We moved the ball.Our goal is to rush
for 200 yards a game.”
Putnam had the longest journey from
home, traveling three hours by bus down to
Stamford to take on Wright Tech/Stamford
Academy. The Clippers lost 24-14 in what
head football coach Greg LaBelle considered
a “sluggish” Putnam team. Wright Tech
jumped out to a 24-0 lead.
“We didn’t come to play until the last quar-
ter of the game,”said a frustrated LaBelle.
“They were a much better team than they
were two years ago.”
Clippers quarterback Matt Daigneault got
off to a rough start when he threw an inter-
ception that was returned for a
touchdown in the first half.
The Clippers got both their
scores in the fourth quarter.
Senior running back Brian
Gardner scored both touch-
downs for the Clippers.
“We had a good mix of run-
ning,passing,and screens and
were executed really well,”
said LaBelle.
The first scoring drive went
roughly 70 yards.Gardner took
the Daigneault hand-off up the middle for the
10-yard score. On the second drive starting
roughly around their own 40-yard line,
Gardner caught a Daigneault pass and took it
in for the final score of the night. Gardner
finished with roughly 140 all-purpose rush-
ing yards.
The Killingly Redmen didn’t fair well,
either, losing 29-8 to the Bacon Academy
Bobcats.
The final score didn’t indicate how close
this game was. The Redmen had two touch-
downs called back due to penalties.
The first touchdown called back was an
interception by defensive corner back
Connor Roachfort.A block in the back penal-
ty was the call, which negated the 60-yard
interception return.
The second touchdown called back was in
the third quarter when a long running play
was negated by a holding penalty.
“Those were two big scores that would
have put us right in the game,”said Killingly
head football coach Chad Neal.
By half time the Bobcats held a 13-2 lead.
Zach Hajder tackled the Bobcats quarterback
in the end zone for the first Killingly points
on the season during first quarter action.
The Redmen found the end zone in the
fourth quarter when senior quarterback D.J.
Grimes called his own number, scampering
20 yards for the score.
Neal was happy that their special teams
play kept them in the game.The punt return
game and kickoff return consistently put the
offense in good field position all game long.
“All the way around, I thought our special
teams played well and we had good field posi-
tion,”said Neal.
Quiet Corner teams fall in season openers
KILLINGLY 8
BACON ACADEMY 29
PUTNAM 14
WRIGHT/STAMFORD 24
WOODSTOCK 8
GRISWOLD 40