Darien Fights Darien to a 7-7 Tie

The way Darien football coach Rob Trifone sees it, the school's annual Blue-White scrimmage is a reward for players who are willing to go through the week-plus grind of spring practice at the end of the school year.

The 2010 contest took place Saturday, held on Darien's soccer field because the football stadium is being prepared for graduation ceremonies.

The game, which didn't include any punting or kickoffs, finished in a 7-7 tie, marking the second straight year it ended in a draw. That means the trophy, normally painted in the winning team's color, will remain half blue and half
white.

"To ask a group of teenangers to work their tails off during June, when all their friends are at the beach and there's no carrot or light at the end of the tunnel, it's kind of hard," Trifone said.

"Instead, I say you guys practice hard for eight or nine days and we'll have fun playing the game," he added. "They love to play the game. If I don't put the carrot at the end, I don't know if I'd get much out of them in the eight days prior."

Of course, the contest also presented an opportunity for the coaching staff to evaluate the squad under simulated game conditions. While the slightly under two-hour scrimmage obviously lacked the hitting of a regular-season clash, the players were in full pads on a hot afternoon.

A 1-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Sean Fahey gave the Blue a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. The White matched that score when senior quarterback Chris Allam threw a 13-yard TD strike to senior Scotty Waters in the third period.

Five key players, including three captains, did not play in Saturday's scrimmage, due to injuries and all-star lacrosse commitments.

Darien returns 15 starters from a 7-3 team, although the Blue Wave will have to break in a new quarterback following the graduation of last year's starter George Benitez, who was Darien's top rusher in 2009. The Blue Wave also lost their second-leading runner in Bobby Nolan.

"I was impressed with the sophomores," Trifone said. "The sophomores, I thought for having run the offense for seven or eight days, did a nice job."

Trifone got a look at all three of his signal-callers who are vying for the starting job in the fall: Allam, junior Patrick McDonald and sophonore Henry Baldwin. The quarterbacks alternated playing on both teams.

Allam attended Darien High School as a sophomore, but spent last year at Berkshire, a private boarding school in Sheffield, Massachusetts,   for academic reasons, so he is playing catch-up.

"Allam has the strongest arm of the three (but) he doesn't know the offense as well as the other two yet," said Trifone,  who indicated that he won't announce a starter until September 1. "He's just a little bit behind but he'll catch up. He's got the whole summer to catch up.

"The other two kids are good quarterbacks, too. At the end of the day, I'm looking for poise and quite honestly, I saw three with poise today."

Both teams passed on nearly every play in the second half, which was part of the original game plan.

"We tried to mix it," Trifone added. "We know we can run the ball. We go into this game thinking let's try to throw it around, work our secondary and at the same time work our pass game. "

Darien opens the 2010 season at home on September 16 against Fairfield Warde.