Sports
New Canaan Tops Trinity Catholic 41-14 [VIDEO]
Matt Milano throws five touchdown passes to four different receivers in victory.
What started out as a game that looked like it would go touchdown for touchdown, quickly turned into a lopsided Rams' victory.
Though the Rams won convincingly over Trinity Catholic, the 41-14 score does not tell the tale of the battle this game really was. Trinity managed to gain 267 yards rushing and only one rushing TD. When you rush that much, your time of possession usually eats up the clock, giving the other team little time to mount a comeback.
Trinity Coach Peter Stokes said it was all part of his teams game plan,"we wanted to wind the clock and play hard and move the chains, give them less time with the ball."
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However, the difference in this game was at quarterback. Though Matt Milano had some difficulty with some wild snaps and fumbles, he remained poised and focused, and found four different receivers for his five toucdown passes. Milano led quick and efficient strikes to counter the Crusaders rushing offense.
Milano was 26-for-39 for 287 yards with five touchdown passes, while Trinity was 2-of-12 for just 18 yards. Defense aside, it was Trinity’s lack of a quality passing game that hurt them against New Canaan. Four interceptions, two of which lead to touchdown drives, kept Trinity from mounting a consistent flow on offense.
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Milano admitted that it wasn’t the Rams best game, “we weren’t executing, we called a few plays in wrong. These were early season mistakes that we have to fix, but that was the extent of it.”
Trinity scored on the games opening drive as Donavan Stephenson caught an 18 yard pass from Dan O’Leary for the first touchdown at 9:07 of the first quarter.
New Canaan came right back down the field on their first possession, scoring on a 5-yard pass from Milano to Ted Bossidy at the 6:28 mark.
Bossidy then recovered a fumble off a punt, which led to a Milano 10-yard yard touchdown strike to Connor Kilbane with 1:30 left in the first quarter.
Trinity answered with a 60-yard touchdown run by Shaquan Howsie with 12.3 seconds left in the first quarter, knotting the score at 14-14. It looked as if the game was going to be very competitive at this point.
On New Canaan’s next possession, Collin Shapiro missed a 35-yard field goal attempt giving Trinity the ball at their own 35-yard line. Two plays later, Michael Root intercepted O’Leary’s pass, giving the Rams the ball back at the 36.
Milano then threw a sideline pass to Peter Kraus who ran it into the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown and a 21-14 lead New Canaan would never relinquish.
One of the most exciting plays of the game came at the 2:14 mark of the second quarter. On a botched snapped on a field goal attempt, which may have looked like a fake to some, Collin Shapiro threw a butterfly pass to Kevin McDonough for at 22-yard touchdown for the Rams. That touchdown wound up being the winning score of the game.
Milano later hit Kraus again and Ryan Minaglia for touchdown strikes of 11 and 17 yards, respectively, to put the game away for good.
New Canaan improves to (2-0) and they will face Fairfield Warde Friday, September 30 at home. Kick off is 7 pm.
Trinity Catholic, now (1-1), travels to Harding next Saturday for a 1:30 kickoff.
