Rockville Battles Hard, But Falls In Class M Football Final

NEW BRITAIN, CT — The Killingly High football team wanted to make a statement in the second half of Saturday’s CIAC Class M championship game. The Redmen led Rockville by seven points at halftime but wanted to seize control.

Killingly ran the ball with dominating fashion to win its fourth state championship with a 28-14 win over the Rams at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Redmen finished the season undefeated at 12-0.

Killingly ran the ball on 11 consecutive plays on their opening drive of the third quarter to take a two-touchdown lead. And after forcing a Rockville punt, the Redmen marched 52 yards in less than three minutes to extend their lead to three touchdowns.

“We made a statement coming out of halftime,” Killingly back Jack Sharpe said. “We came out and showed we’re a force to be reckoned with a state championship and an undefeated season.”

Sharpe ran for 102 yards and a touchdown, while teammate Soren Reif ran for a game-high 183 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries.

“We wanted to get powerful with them and beat them up a little bit,” said Killingly head coach Chad Neal, who earned his 100th career win in the victory. “We’re a running team. RPO, baby.”

In Killingly’s world, RPO stands for run people over. The game was tied at 7-7 in the second quarter before Ben Jax returned an interception 15 yards for a touchdown to give the Redmen a 14-7 advantage with 6:52 left in the second quarter.

On their final drive of the first half, the Rams drove to the Killingly 17-yard line before the drive stalled and Shane Leduc blocked a 34-yard field goal attempt with 10 seconds left in the half.

In the third quarter, Killingly ran the ball often and hard. They ran 11 times on their first drive of the half with Sharpe running nine times. Reif scored from the 16-yard line with 6:42 left in the third quarter and with the extra point, Killingly led 21-7. After forcing a Rockville punt, Killingly marched 52 yards on seven plays to extend their lead to 28-7 on a 28-yard run from Reif with 41 seconds left in the quarter.

Rockville did cut the lead to 28-14 on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ryan to Deshaun Perry with 9:02 left in the game, but that would be as close as the Rams would get.

Rockville was making its first appearance in the state finals since 1995 and was seeking its first championship since 1990. It was Killingly's third appearance in the Class M championship game since 2017. KHS won the championship in 2017 and was second to Weston in 2019.

Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Rockville 0 7 0 7 14
Killingly 6 8 14 0 28

First quarter

K: Jack Sharpe 10 run (pass failed), 7:33

Second quarter

R: Travon Edmondson 7 run (Michael Naylor kick), 8:36

K: Ben Jax 15 interception (Nathan Keefe pass from Thomas Dreibholz), 6:52

Third quarter

K: Soren Rief 16 run (Dreibholz kick), 6:42

K: Rief 28 run (Dreibholz kick), 0:41

Fourth quarter

R: Deshaun Perry 29 pass from Matt Ryan (Naylor kick), 9:02

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Killingly – Soren Reif 17-183, Jack Sharpe 23-102, Thomas Dreibholz 2-minus 7, Ben Jax 1-13; Rockville – Travon Edmondson 13-63, Deshaun Perry 3-18, Amir Knighton 7-44, Matt Ryan 4-minus 14

PASSING: Killingly – Thomas Dreibolz 1-3-1, 17; Rockville – Matt Ryan 16-28-1, 219

RECEIVING: Killingly – Ben Jax 1-17; Rockville – John Ryan 4-43, Juneil Powell 3-26, Hason Green 4-60, Amir Knighton 2-33, Deshaun Perry 3-57

Written by Gerry deSimas Jr./Special to the CIAC. Published with permission.

Other Championship Scores

CLASS LL

• No. 3 Darien 42, No. 1 Fairfield Prep 7

CLASS L

• No. 3 Maloney 35, No. 5 Windsor 21

CLASS S

• No. 2 Cromwell/Portland 21, No. 1 Bloomfield 6