Sports
Nowhere to Go But Up for Hamden High Football
Green Dragons lose season opener to Cheshire 46-18 but "we're starting to progress," Coach Tony Martone says.
The Hamden High football team, coming off a winless season, started the 2011 season last night with a 46-18 loss to 10th ranked Cheshire that was reminiscent of last year’s debacle season.
But coach Tony Martone sees brighter days ahead.
“Everything runs in cycles and a good cycle is starting to progress,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
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Martone is in the second year of his second stint as the Hamden High football coach. The team achieved success before he returned with two recent state playoff appearances.
He hopes last year’s crash won’t be repeated and he’s installed a new offense modeled on the Oregon system that features lots of fast play passing.
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That was how the team started last night’s game as 6’3” junior quarterback Eli Bonadies launched a pass only drive that succeeded in getting the ball down the field. But the drive stalled with numerous procedure penalties and the team was forced to punt. Cheshire took the ball down the field for a quick score.
The first half also featured a Bonadies fumble and two interceptions that led to additional Cheshire scores. It was 15-0 after one quarter and 36-0 at the half.
“We were erratic and inconsistent,” Martone said. “Too many dropped balls.”
The dropped balls and interceptions prompted Martone to replace Bonadies at qb temporarily with Tim Dube, the senior captain who plays a variety of positions and is the team leader. Dube ran the ball up the middle and led a run-oriented offense that was completely different from the Bonadies attack.
Bonadies returned in the second half and restored the passing game that generated two touchdowns, on a 17 yard pass to Derrick Anderson and a 38 yard bomb to Gary Ormond. A late touchdown was also scored on a running play.
The Green Dragons outscored the Rams in the second half 18-10 but it was too little, too late as the team was overwhelmed in the first half in which the offense stalled and team was called for numerous penalties that thwarted potential drives.
The defense also succeeded in the second half with a blocked punt that was recovered inside the Cheshire 30 yard line.
Last night's game was played in East Haven because Cheshire's field is under repair.
The Green Dragons take their 0-1 record to North Haven next Friday for a game against the highly touted Indians, who defeated 4th ranked Hillhouse 20-19 in their season opener yesterday. The game will be played at Vanacore Field at 7:00 p.m.
