By Evan Triantafilidis
news@southburyrecord.com
A flurry of turnovers in the first half stymied Pomperaug High School (1-1) on Friday night against Brookfield High School (2-0), as the Bobcats capitalized on short fields and big plays in their 40-7 victory.
What began as a defensive stalemate in the first quarter, the early-season SWC matchup featured the two teams trading fumble recoveries late in the first quarter.
Just two plays after recovering a fumble on defense, the Panthers gave the ball right back as Brookfield’s Thad Balzi took the scoop-and-score for a 6-0 lead.
From there, Brookfield took advantage of turnovers, and their ground game took over.
A 27-yard touchdown run by Chase Sylvia was followed by a pair of Pomperaug turnovers – a fumble and an interception – that were cashed in for points on the scoreboard. Matt Ackerly and Tyler Buttendorf each had a first-half rushing touchdown, giving the Bobcats a comfortable 27-0 lead at halftime.
Brookfield extended their lead with long, methodical drives in the second half. Ackerly and Buttendorf both found the end zone again, making it 40-0 in the third quarter.
Pomperaug finally broke through on the first play of the fourth quarter when Josh Coughlin burst free for a 53-yard touchdown run after faking out the defense on an option-run play.
Coughlin’s score provided a bright spot in the loss, as Pomperaug head coach Tony Pereira said turnovers and penalties cost his team some opportunities to put more points on the board.
“You can’t give a good team three turnovers inside the 15-yard line like we did,” said Pereira following the game. “They capitalized on all of them, but you can’t turn the ball over four or five times in a game.”
Coughlin got the initial start at quarterback for the Panthers, with Cole Tracy getting playing time despite coming down with COVID-19 during the week. While unable to practice for a few days, Tracy was eventually cleared to play, said Pereira, but Coughlin was more involved this week than in the season opener last week.
“Josh is going to help us in a lot of ways on offense,” said Pereira. “It could be quarterback, it could be out in space, either at running back or receiver as well, so he can play multiple positions.”
Dominic Creaco and Dane Guinipero led the rushing attack for the Panthers, with Gavin Lynch and Aaron Emerick also getting carries in the backfield.
On defense, Marco Russomanno finished the game with multiple tackles in the Brookfield backfield, with help from teammates Caleb McKee and Lynch.
Before Pomperaug’s next game against Sheehan, Pereira said a hard week of practice is needed to prepare for the non-conference opponent.
“We need to clean up a lot of things during the week, penalties included, minimizing turnovers,” said Pereira. “Penalties and turnovers…that was the name of the game.”
He added, “We know we’re a better football team than what we put on the field tonight.”
With contrasting scores from the season opener to the second game of the year, Pereira said that this is the time of the season where coaches learn a lot about the identity of their team.
“I want them to go out there and put the product on the field that they’ve worked so hard on in the off-season and in practice,” Pereira said.
Pomperaug plays Sheehan High School (1-1) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Riccitelli Field in Wallingford.
The Southbury Record 