Wilton 8 White vs. Aspetuck 8

Wilton White 8th Grade vs. Aspetuck 8th Grade

Wilton White’s 8th grade football squad opened the 2016 season at Aspetuck on Sunday afternoon. Despite some early season jitters, that led to a Wilton fumble on its first possession and an Aspetuck touchdown on the ensuing drive, the Warriors looked solid from top to bottom.

After falling behind 8-0, the Wilton offense buckled down and sustained an impressive drive almost entirely on the ground with running back Sean Sullivan doing the lion’s share of the work behind offensive guards Michael Coffey and Evan Kauh, offensive tackles Matt Gulbin and Andre Long and center Michael Burton. Sullivan finished the drive on a nice 5-yard run up the middle for a touchdown.

That drive seemed to wake the Warriors up as the defense really stiffened, led back tackles for loss by Gulbin and Jimmy McKiernan. McKiernan then caught a pass for a key first down on offense as Wilton’s air attack began in earnest. Quarterback John Stanley then found Trevor Martines for a 25 yard strike down the sideline that set up a nice touchdown run by Mack Kepner.

Wilton’s defense took over for good right before the half with Ryan Witty and Max Greenberg making key stops on the line and Martines intercepting the ball with less than a minute in the half. On offense, the Stanley to Martines connection struck gold for a 35 yard bomb good for another touchdown (see photo) Kicker Ryan vanHeyst made all 3 extra points in the half to make the score 24-8.

The second half opened with more of the same with Wilton’s defense forcing Aspetuck’s offense into a 3 and out after Coffey had a tackle for loss and joined Witty for another stop at the line of scrimmage. On offense, Stanley found receiver Mattias Onnerud for a nice completion to get the drive going. Then Kepner found daylight again, barreling over defenders for an impressive 33 yard touchdown run.

With the score 30-8, Wilton relied on strong defense line play the rest of the way by Long, Kauh, Quinn O’Connor and EJ Fasano, who forced a fumble, along with Will Rath patrolling the secondary. Nolan Graham and Ryan vanHeyst took over the running back duties and ground out the remaining time in the game. Darien Blue is up next for the Wilton White Warriors.

Written by Chris Coffey

Photo Credit: Austin Kauh