New Canaan Sports Digest Sept 9

New Canaan Black 4 lined up Saturday against next door rival Wilton White and dropped a 14-6 decision in the season opener for both teams.

At the start of the game, New Canaan was led on offense by quater Luke Morton and running back Zach LaPolice. Key plays included a 14-yard gain by LaPolice on fine blocking by Jack Finnigan and a quarterback sneak for a first down to keep the drive alive.

New Canaan eventually turned the ball over to Wilton and put together some fine defensive play from Tyler Saitta and Brandon Sechan, as well as a sack by Gus Larson.

Scoring was quiet until the very end of the first quarter when Wilton completed a tough drive for a TD and two point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

During the second quarter, New Canaan and Wilton exchanged fumble recoveries. After a heads up play by New Canaan’s Nick Brown to pounce on a fumble by Wilton, Brown sparked the New Canaan offense with an amazing finger tip catch off a long throw from Morton to complete a first down.

After marching inside Wilton territory, New Canaan turned the ball over on the Wilton 10-yard line, just falling short on a scoring drive. A long run from scrimmage then led to another TD by Wilton. However, NC Black stopped the extra point and the first half ended 14-0.

In the second half, the New Canaan's defensive effort was led by strong line play from Matthew Rigione, Michael McDonnell, Brown and Larson, a shoestring tackle by Saitta and a key stop from Morton.

LaPolice then stole the ball from Wilton’s quarterback to start the fourth quarter and New Canaan regained possession . With good blocking at the line, New Canaan’s offense came alive and Morton pulled off a 40-yard TD run. After a missed extra point attempt, the score was 14-6.

New Canaan’s defense held Wilton scoreless in the second half, which  included nice tackles from Dean Ciancio and Bailey Williams. Late in the game,

New Canaan started a comeback with strong blocking from the offensive line, including Charlie Knight and Thomas Doster, but just fell short .

Week two of the Fairfield County Football League kicks off this weekend. There are seven towns represented in the league -- Fairfield, Westport, Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Wilton and Ridgefield. Here is this weekend's schedule of games in New Canaan:

Saturday

At Dunning Stadium

9 a.m. -- junior sixth grade -- New Canaan junior 6 Black vs. Wilton Junior 6 Blue

10:30 a.m. -- bantam third grade -- New Canaan bantam 3 Red vs. Wilton bantam 3 Blue

5 p.m. -- senior seventh grade -- New Canaan senior 7 Black vs. Darien 7 White

6:30 p.m. -- junior sixth grade -- New Canaan junior 6 Red vs. RYF Junior 6 Orange

At Watertower Turf

5:30 p.m. -- Senior eighth grade - New Canaan Senior 8 Red vs. Fairfield Senior 8 Red

Sunday

At Dunning Stadium

1 p.m. -- Senior eighth grade -- New Canaan Senior 8 Black vs.  RYF Senior 8 Black

2:30 p.m.  -- Senior seventh grade -- New Canaan Senior 7 Red vs. RYF Senior 7 Black

Casali finishes first season in professional baseball

Curt Casali's first season in professional baseball ended on Monday, when the Class A West Michigan Whitecaps suffered a 7-2 loss to Fort Wayne.

The teams met in a season-ending series to determine a postseason spot in the Midwest League playoffs. Fort Wayne took two of three to claim the Eastern Division's second-half wild card berth.

The loss snapped West Michigan's streak of making the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons.

Casali played in 25 games with the Whitecaps after being promoted from the Connecticut Tigers of the New York-Penn League and batted .227 with two home runs and 14 RBI.

In a combined 35 games, Casali hit .243 with three homers and 16 RBI. The New Canaan native batted .278 with a homer and 10 RBI in 10 contests with the Connecticut Tigers.

SportsNight tickets on sale

Tickets for the Fairfield County Sports Commission's seventh SportsNight awards dinner are available at a discounted price until Sept. 16.

SportsNight is Monday, Oct 17 at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich at 6 p.m. The six new members of the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame will be inducted that evening. The 2011 honorees are: John Bagley (Bridgeport), Bennett Salvatore (Stamford), Joe DeSantis (Fairfield), Ceci Hopp St. Geme (Greenwich), Charlie Bentley (Bridgeport) and the late Albie Loeffler (Westport).

Among the 15 Sports Persons of the Year being honored include Darien High field hockey coach Mo Minicus, USA Hockey U18 World Champion Ryan Haggerty of Stamford, UConn baseball standout L.J. Mazzilli of Greenwich, State Swimmer of the Year Christian Higgins of New Canaan, New England Babe Ruth Tourney organizers Jim and Joe Parlanti of Norwalk and the 2010 FCIAC champion Class LL runnerup Staples High boys soccer team.

Dinner tickets are priced at $115 and will be raised to $125 after Sept. 16. Tables of 10 seats are priced at $1,150 and will go up to $1,250 after the 16th.

For more information and to purchase tickets call Tom Chiappetta at 203-984-4806, email at tomchip21@aol.com or visit www.fairfieldcountysports.com

The Daily Sports Digest is designed for you to add your best photo and/or video to share (instructions here). If you see anything in our scores, standings, or schedules that requires updating, please e-mail regional editor Michael Dinan at michaeld+sports@patch.com.