Darien Clinches Spot In FCIAC Championship Game

The Darien football players huddled around coach Rob Trifone and his staff after Saturday's 38-14 victory over Norwalk clinched a spot in the FCIAC championship.

Nothing unusual about that,  but the Blue Wave wanted to find out who their opponent in next Friday's title game would be.

The players were all listening on Trifone's cellphone to  play-by-play of the final seconds of the Staples-Trumbull game.  They discovered moments later that Trumbull had held for a 15-13 victory when the Wreckers failed to convert a two-point conversion after time had expired.

The FCIAC title game will be played at Trumbull at 7 p.m.

The Wave (9-0) took care of business against Norwalk  (3-6) albeit after a slow start.

"They were flat all right - the offense, the defense and the special teams," Trifone said. "But they accept challenges and rise to the occasion, as they did today.

"I spoke to them at halftime, with a few choice words,  I might add,  and reminded them in no uncertain terms that we have to play with a lot more fire, and we were fine after that."

Darien only led 7-6 at halftime after taking the lead for the first time with just eight seconds remaining in the second period.

Norwalk scored the game's first points early in the second quarter when  quarterback Anthony Ferraro  connected with Joey Dellarippa after Darien's Scotty Waters tipped the pass.

Late in the half, Darien's Chris Allam completed two passes to Clay Barker and one to Waters to the 1-yard line.

Allam and Barker hooked up again for the short TD pass with 8.8 seconds remaining. C.J. Raia kicked the extra point, giving the Blue Wave the lead at the intermission.

After Trifone's "heart-to-heart",  Darien took over for the rest of the game, breaking it open with three third-quarter touchdowns. 

After a three-and-out by Norwalk,  Allam found Barker for a 32-yard touchdown to make it 14-6.

"A little adjustment was making things happen," Barker said. "We threw in a new wrinkle because their defense was biting on the out-moves. So we went to a double move. Instead of running an out pattern, we ran an out and up and it worked," said the rangy receiver.

On the Wave's next possession Allam threw to Peter Gesauldi for a 37-yard score and a 21- 6 lead.

With just over two minutes remaining in the quarter, Allam ran it in from the 18 for a 28-6 advantage after three quarters. 

Norwalk scored its second touchdown early in the fourth quarter on Ferraro's 24-yard toss to Derek Edwards.

Raia's  29-yard field goal and Sam Gesualdi's 4-yard TD run with 1:30 remaining completed the scoring.