Wilton Youth Football Ties in Playoff Game

Wilton White 8th Grade vs. Darien Blue 8th Grade – Playoff game

Wilton White’s 8th grade football squad opened the 2016 playoffs with a decisive victory at home on Saturday evening. Wilton’s offense started with the ball and relied on their punishing ground game to wear down Darien’s defense. Running backs Sean Sullivan, Mack Kepner and Trevor Martines took turns clipping off 5-plus yard per carry behind the blocking of Michael Coffey, Evan Kauh and Michael Burton, with quarterback John Stanley running the option to perfection. Stanley finished the drive on a QB sneak for a touchdown. Ryan vanHeyst made the extra point to complete a drive the lasted almost the entire first quarter.

Darien’s hope of answering on the next drive was quickly crushed when Kepner intercepted a pass and 5 plays later Martines put the ball in the end zone with a nifty 15 yard run. Darien’s next offensive possession was a quick three-and-out thanks to Matt Gulbin’s tackles for loss on both first and third downs. The ensuing possession for Wilton featured Stanley’s fearless running and a laser of a throw on fourth down to Jimmy McKiernan to keep the drive alive. Sullivan finished the drive on a powerful 10-yard touchdown scamper. vanHeyst was good on all three extra points of the half to make the score 24-0. vanHeyst also contributed on defense with an incredible over the shoulder interception to end the half.

The second half did see some scoring from Darien, but Wilton’s defense continued to dictate the flow of the game with Andre Long playing tough run defense and defensive end EJ Fasano pressuring the QB for several tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Ryan Witty was a force in the middle of the defensive line filling up gaps and moving along the line to make tackles on sweep plays. As has been the case all year, this was a full team effort with Will Rath making a touchdown saving tackle and Nolan Graham blanking the Darien receivers. Quinn O’Connor played tough minutes along the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and was a factor in several long runs by the Warriors. Max Greenberg opened huge holes on the offensive line against Darien players much bigger than him and receiver Mattias Onnerud provided several key downfield blocks.

With the 24-12 victory, Wilton moves on to face New Canaan Black on Saturday in its seemingly inevitable playoff match-up. Article written by Chris Coffey.

Image via Shutterstock