West Haven Outruns Amity in Football Opener, 28-14

West Haven’s speed was too much for the Amity football team to handle Friday night. The fleet footed Westies burnt the Spartans for 347 rushing yards enrout to a season-opening 28-14 Southern Connecticut Conference Division I victory at chilly Ken Strong Stadium. The winners (who also racked up 16 first downs and 62 yards in the air) were led by high flying 5-foot 10-inch sophomore scat back Ervin Phillips who raced around and through the Amity defense for 186 yards and two scores on 24 carries. James Moore, a 5-8, 141 halfback, added another 77 yards on his 13 tries.

“Their speed just killed us,” Spartan Coach Bert Mozealous said. “We knew that No. 1 (Phillips) was special but West Haven has three good backs and defensively, it’s very hard to take everything away from them. Early in the game, we didn’t execute well on defense, but our young kids played hard and they got better as the game went on. We didn’t win but we showed a lot of fight tonight and I’m proud of my kids.”

Following a game-opening 28 yd kick off return by Co-Captain Tyler Bishop, Amity set up shop on its own 40-yard line, but went nowhere in three downs. On fourth and six from his own 44, Amity’s Cole German dropped back to punt. The snap was low and the punt was blocked by the Blue Devils’ Duane Geary and recovered by a host of blue shirts at the Spartan 18. It took Phillips exactly one play to sprint around his right wide for the game’s first touchdown. It came at the 10 minute, 35 second mark. Nick Nieves added the conversion kick to give his team a quick 7-0 lead.

Mozealous added, “Last year we might have laid down and died after a blocked punt, but tonight, we hung in and kept battling.”

Amity went three-and-out in its next possession. On fourth down they booted the ball away and the Westies took over possession at their own 44. Keyed by a 20 yard sprint by Phillips that gave the Devils a first down at the Spartan 14, West Haven needed only eight plays to score. This time, Nieves tossed a 15 yard pass to junior halfback Andre’ Gee that made it 13-0 with 4:52 still left in the first quarter.

Mozealous said, “West Haven hit us with some mismatches on long passes. Its tough for a 5-8 kids to cover a 6-2 kid. We also need to work on stopping the counter. They hurt us with that play a number of times. Give us some time. We’ll get better.”

Early in the second session, the Westies marched from their own 37 to the Amity 25 before running out of downs. Amity took possession and drove 75 yards in the opposite direction to score on a nine yard keeper by quarterback Tyler Vallie. The score (which came with 8:05 left in the first half) was set up by Vallie’s 29 yard pass to Codey Ellison along with an added 15 yard face mask penalty against the Blue Devils. With Lyle Luth’s PAT, Amity cut the West Haven lead back to 13-7.

Phillips opened the second half with a dazzling, broken field 59 yard kick off return to the Amity 28.  Four plays later, Eddy Williams sprinted through a huge hole in the middle of the Spartan defense to score at 10:07 and give his team a 19-7 lead. Nieves combined on the 2-point conversion to make it 21-7.

Amity responded with a methodical 10 play drive from its own 29-yard line to the Westies’ 12 before running out of gas.

Set up by Nieves’ 41 yard aerial bomb to Tahr Manning for a first down at the Amity 16, West Haven added a final touchdown. On the seventh play of  the 53 yard drive, Phillips again skirted around his right side for an 11 yard score that gave the Blue Devils a 28-7 lead with 7:06 left in the game.

It took Amity exactly one minute and five plays to answer right back. Capping the 65 yard drive, Vallie tossed a 13 yard scoring strike to James Semmonella with 6:06 to go. Prior to that touchdown, Vallie pitched a 12 yard strike to Sammonella and followed that with a 15 yard pass to Anthony Duhamel.

“Semmonella is Semmonella,” Mozealous said. “He’s great on offense and on defense. He’s one of our five senior starters and we count on him to do big things on both sides of the ball.”

He added, “Tyler Vallie showed tonight how tough he can be. He tries his best on every play. Sometimes, he even tries to do too much. He’s very quick on his feet and sometimes tries to make plays that aren’t there —sometimes his eyes are quicker that his feet. He’s a real leader and was chosen by his teammates to be their only captain.”

Amity ended up with 11 first downs, 89 yards on the ground and 146 in the air. Vallie picked up 54 yards rushing on nine carries and completed 10 of 22 passes (with one interception). Semmonella grabbed three of those throws for 39 yards. Ellison added another 39 yards on two catches.

At times, West Haven proved to be its own worst enemy as it gave away two fumbles and picked up 13 penalties that were worth 95 yards. Amity had eight penalties that cost 40 yards.