By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspaers
Special to MaxPreps.com
The Connecticut high school football season is three weeks old and already there have been some upsets and a state record set.
The record came from Ansonia senior running back Alex Thomas, who ran for 518 yards in a 62-35 win over Woodland-Beacon Falls Thursday night. Ansonia is ranked first in the state coaches' poll conducted by The Day of New London and the New Haven Register's media poll. The Hartford Courant, which runs its own staff rankings of high school football teams, also lists the Chargers first.
Thomas carried the ball 44 times to snap the record of 508 yards, set in 2002 by Brandon Willard of Farmington in a game against Plainville. Thomas scored seven touchdowns in the game to tie an Ansonia single-game record. He also broke his brother, Ryan Thomas', record for career touchdowns at Ansonia. Ryan (2001-2003) had 78 and Alex now has 80.
The seven touchdowns rank second on the all-time single game list in the state. Yale running back Mike McLeod (who was the Ivy League player of the week) had eight in a game at New Britain High in 2004.
Thomas became the 10th back in state history to run for at least 400 yards in a game, according to the state's high school record book. The third-best was set by Ansonia's Buddy Natowich. Who had 451 yards (and seven touchdowns) in a game against Naugatuck on Thanksgiving Day of 1936.
Former Bristol Central and Syracuse back Tim Washington broke the 400-yard barrier twice, against Platt-Meriden and again against Southington. Others on the list include Jamal Johnson, New London; Darrell Hill, Woodrow Wilson-Middletown; Kory Sheets, Bloomfield (now at Purdue), Edwin Esson, Seymour and the aptly-named John Weaver of Weaver-Hartford. Weaver and Sheets both turned the trick in state tournament play; Weaver in a semi-final against Brookfield and Sheets in a state title game against Notre Dame-Fairfield.
West Haven's 1-2 Start Looking Better
West Haven, thought by some to be the state's best team in preseason polling, was upended twice in the first three weeks, although the first loss looks less like an upset now.
The Blue Devils fell to Southern Connecticut Conference rival Shelton on opening night, 49-24, and then lost again to Wilbur Cross-New Haven in week three, 15-14.
Shelton has gone on to win its first three, including a 26-21 victory over Fairfield Prep in a regionally-televised game on Madison Square Garden Network. Cross got its first win in beating West Haven. It was also the first win for new Cross head coach John Aquavita, who returned to his alma mater after a successful run at Hyde Leadership-New Haven.
50-Point Watch
Connecticut is in its second season of the nationally-discussed 50-point rule. The rule is that if a team beats an opponent by 50 or more, the head coach is suspended for a week.
Coaches have the right to appeal and last year there were two cases; in one, the coach was re-instated, in the other, he was penalized. The guidelines for overturning suspensions are not etched in stone, but serious consideration is given if the leading team offers to play running time in the second half; if the team substitutes freely and early and stays away from passing and gadget plays. In other words, if score management is observed, the fact some third-string back breaks free on a long run might be overlooked.
Thus far, there has not been a 50-point game in the state this year. Two years ago, before the rule was put into place, there were more than a dozen such games.
New Programs
There are seven new high school football programs in the state this year, bringing the total to 140. New teams include Canton, Nonnewaug-Woodbury, Capitol Prep-Hartford and four regional vocational technical schools, Platt Tech-Milford, P:rince Tech-Hartford, Wilcox Tech-Meriden and Cheney Tech-Manchester.
Cheney formerly was part of a co-operative program with East Catholic-Manchester but the schools out-grew the co-op and went out on their own. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference places size restrictions on squads involved in co-ops. When those are exceeded, the co-op disbands. Prince Tech actually played one varsity game last year.
On the horizon for 2008 is Wolcott Tech-Torrington which currently has a junior varsity program. It is also quite likely the co-op involving Coginchaug-Durham and Vinal Tech-Middletown will have to disband because of size.
