Amity Football Falls to Hand Friday Night

Hand High of Madison quarterback Henry Foye threw four first half touchdowns to lead his undefeated Tigers to a 40-7 thrashing of Amity Friday night at Sim Field in Woodbridge. Hand (currently 3-0 and ranked No. 5 in the latest state poll) have now scored 40 or more points in each of its three contests this fall. Prior to drubbing the Spartans, Hand also crushed Fairfield Prep (42-0) and Lyman Hall (41-20). The Southern Connecticut Conference Division 1 contest was suspended at halftime for more than an hour due to a lightning storm.

While the Tigers’ high powered offense rolled up 15 first downs, 95 yards on the ground and another 234 in the air, its stingy, hard-hitting defense limited the Spartans to only six first downs, 58 rushing yards and 98 passing yards. Each team also recorded three turnovers.

Amity coach Bert Mozealous conceded that his quarterback, Tyler Vallie, did not have a good outing. Vallie ran for only 21 yards on nine carries while hitting only five of 20 passes (with two interceptions) for an additional 71 yards.

“Hand has a very good football team. They make you do things you don’t want to do, but we had to drop at least seven passes in the first half and we also had two intercepted passes. Each of those passes could have been a first down. Better execution leads to better plays. Tonight, we weren’t able to,” he said. “Tyler did get banged around but on top of that, he got tentative with his throws when the guys he usually counts on to catch the ball and make plays, didn’t do that tonight. All of our mental errors and physical mistakes got to us.”

Amity’s self-destruction started on the second play of the game as James Semmonella bobbled a pitch from Vallie and Hand recovered at the Spartan 33-yard line. While the Tigers failed to capitalize on that scoring opportunity, they finally got onto the scoreboard later in the first quarter. Led by a 17 yard pass to wide receiver Caleb Ewald for a first down at the Amity 46,  Foye drove the Tigers 64 yards in seven plays. With three minutes, 34 seconds left in the opening session, Foye hit Ewald with a 17 yard scoring strike.

Just two plays later, Vallie dropped the ball and it was recovered by Tiger linebacker Weston Staples at the Spartan 40. Set up by a 31 yard throw from Foye to Nick Vitale, Ryan Bell booted a 26 yard field goal to give hand a 9-0 lead with1:32 left in the first quarter.

Hand added another score midway in the second quarter. Following a 16 yard jaunt by Kevin Frey for a first down at the Spartan 38, Foye tossed a screen pass to Tyler Riccio.  Grabbing the ball near the 30, Riccio added 30 YAC (yards after catch) to complete the 38 yard touchdown with 7:33 to go in the first half.

A Spartan fourth down punt was gathered in by Ewald at his own 25 and he churned 45 yards before being leveled by the Spartans. Only four plays were needed before Frey scored on a nine yard run that gave his team a 23-0 lead with 4:30 left on the clock.

With less than a minute to go in the half, Matt Sullivan’s 22 yard punt return put the Tigers at the Amity 20. With 48 seconds left, Foye and Riccio teamed on a seven yard score. Trailing 30-0, Amity turned the ball right back to the Tigers as Vallie fumbled on the first play after that score. Matt Walsh fell on the loose ball back at the Spartan 12-yard line. Wasting no time, Foye went to Kyle Anderson on the first play after the turnover for a`10 yard TD, upping the Hand lead to 37-0 with 11 seconds to go in the half.

Going for broke on his first play after that TD, Vallie teamed with Cole German on a 50 yard bomb but the half ended with Amity at the Hand 10.

“We had several costly break downs in the last four minutes of the second quarter,” Mozealous said, “You can’t let that happen, especially against really good teams like Hand.”

After the long halftime weather delay, Hand Coach Steve Fillipone cleared his bench at the outset of the second half. Playing against the Tiger reserves, Amity finally scored with 1:22 to go in the third session. Set up by Jordan Laugeni’s fumble recovery at the Hand six, Vallie teamed with Semmonella for a seven-yard TD that made it 37-7.

The Tigers closed out the scoring with Bell splitting the uprights on a 30 yard field goal with 7:14 left in the game. It was set up on a 28 yard throw from reserve QB Brendan Bilcheck to Thomas Schultz for a first down at the Spartan 20.

With less than a minute to go in the contest, Sullivan picked off an Amity pass at his own 15 and returned it for an apparent score, but it was nullified by off-setting personal foul penalties. Despite having 36 seconds left on the clock, the officials chose to terminate the game at that point.

Trying to find glimmers with anything of a positive nature, Mozealous said, “At the end of the game, our young kids went in and played hard. They showed they want to be out on the field. Dave Attolino got hurt last week against East Haven and didn’t practice during the week, but tonight he really ran hard tonight. He means a lot to our offense.”

Foye (who completed 15 of 24 passes for 206 yards) hooked up with Riccio on four throws that were worth 69 yards. Ewald grabbed four passes for another 32 yards. Vitale’s three receptions picked up 58 yards. 

The 1-2 Spartans now jump from the frying pan into the fire as they prepare to visit undefeated Xavier (currently ranked No. 1 in the state) Thursday  7 p.m. at Palmer field in Middletown.