Rocky Hill Falls from Ranks of the Unbeaten

​The Rocky Hill Terriers traveled to Meriden undefeated and left Falcon Field with a humbling 47-14 loss at the hands of the Platt Panthers Friday night. The game was touted as a battle between uber-talented running backs Chris Young (Rocky Hill) and Tyzhan Leatherwood (Platt), but it turned into a game of big plays by the home Panthers and missed opportunities from the Terriers.
 
Leatherwood shook off two fumbles (one lost) on Platt’s opening possession and wound up rushing for a school record 352 yards and four touchdowns. The electrifying running back opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 12 yard touchdown run when Platt’s overpowering offensive line opened a massive hole for Leatherwood to run through. The opening score was set up by a 41 yard punt return by Olajuwon McLeod, who would later add another long punt return and two touchdown receptions to his explosive night. The first of McLeod’s touchdowns occurred with Platt holding a 6-0 lead and facing a fourth and nine from the Rocky Hill 30-yard line. The Panthers decided to forgo a long field goal and left their offense on the field. The result was a spectacular 30 yard touchdown toss from Platt’s quarterback Andrew McBride to the speedy McLeod in the corner of the end zone. The Panthers added an insurance score late in the first half when McBride lofted a beautiful touch pass to Creme Watford in the back of the end zone that gave Platt an insurmountable 20-0 edge at the break. 
 
Rocky Hill settled down in the second half, but they were unable to sustain any momentum due to costly turnover and untimely penalties. The Terriers did have an opportunity to swing the momentum when Platt fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half. However, they were unable to capitalize off the great field position and turned it over on downs inside the Platt 10-yard line. Two plays later, Leatherwood ripped off a 93 yard touchdown on a perfectly executed draw play. Rocky Hill’s offense put together their best drive of the game on the ensuing possession, which ended with Young scoring his eleventh touchdown of the season when he outran several Platt defenders to the right corner of the goal line for a one-yard score. The scored narrow the margin to 26-8. However, any chance of a Terriers’ comeback was thwarted on Platt’s next offensive play when Leatherwood burst up the middle, on another draw play, and scampered 80 yards for his third score which put Platt up 33-8.
 
There was a lot that went wrong for Rocky Hill on Friday night, but one bright spot was Jamison O’Connell. The senior linebacker tallied several tackles, including a number of touchdown saving tackles, which kept the score from being more lopsided than it was. He is one of a number of Rocky Hill players who are looking to fill the void left by injured star Dave Sevigny, who was hurt last week in the victory over Bloomfield. Before the injury, Sevigny was second on the team in rushing yards and seventh in tackles.  
        
The loss puts Rocky Hill (4-1) in a three-way tie, with Bloomfield and Northwest Catholic, in the Central Connecticut III West. However, the Terriers still have the tiebreaker advantage because they are the only team in the West without a conference loss. They will look to keep their perfect conference record intact this Saturday at Weaver High School in Hartford. The Weaver Beavers (1-4) have struggled this season and are coming off a 44-8 loss to Berlin. The Beavers are led by fourth year head coach Kevin Quinn who runs a pass-happy offense which features duel senior signal callers, Mark Jennings and Nick Meadows. Kickoff for the conference clash will be at 1:00 p.m. 
 
Football Around Town
 
Xavier’s huge second quarter sinks Spartans
 
The Xavier Falcons improved to 4-1 with a 42-28 conference win over the Amity Regional Spartans Friday night. The Falcons scored a season-high 29 points in the second quarter to head into halftime with a comfortable lead and used a ball control offense in the second half to seal the victory. Senior quarterback Joe Carbone led the second quarter surge with a touchdown toss and two more rushing scores in the quarter. Andrew Meoli (32-121-3) cemented the game in the second half with his powerful running.
 
Xavier will next travel to West Haven to take on the 4-1 Blue Devils who are coming off a 28-14 victory over Notre Dame. West Haven deploys a tradition two-back offensive set with halfback Ervin Philips and fullback Marshont Little. Philips and Little are averaging a combined 200 rushing yards per game this season. Kickoff for the battle extravaganza will be at 7 p.m.
 
Middletown improves to 5-0
 
The Middletown Blue Dragons cruised to another easy victory by throttling the Hartford Public Owls 41-7 in front of a pack home crowd at Skubel Stadium Friday night. Middletown’s quarterback Dario Highsmith continued his amazing season with 338 total yards and five touchdowns on only 17 touches.
 
The Blue Dragons will look to stay undefeated when they travel to play the Bristol Central Rams on Friday night in a Central Connecticut II West showdown. The Rams are coming off a 12-7 victory over the Bulkeley Bulldogs to improve their record to 2-2, but struggled mightily in their only conference game this season when Windsor blanked them, 47-0.   
 
Newington Continues to Slide
 
The Newington Indians suffered their fourth straight loss by getting shutout by the Glastonbury Tomahawks, 33-0. Glastonbury scored all of their 33 points in the first half and used a suffocating defense to complete the shutout.  
 
Newington (1-4) will look to snap their losing streak when they face the winless South Windsor Bobcats on Friday. South Windsor has been outscored by an average of 21 points per game over the first five weeks. The winner of the game will avoid the cellar in the Central Connecticut I East. Kickoff will be at 6:30 p.m. in Newington.
 
Sanzaro Leads High-Flying Eagles
 
Junior Matt Sanzaro continued his fantastic season throwing for 260 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Wethersfield Eagles to a 53-8 victory over the Maloney Spartans. Sanzaro completed passes to seven different Eagles receivers and now has fourteen touchdowns compared to only two interceptions this season.
 
The Eagles (2-3) will look to build on the momentum when they welcome the Hartford Public Owls to Wethersfield Friday night for a Central Connecticut East II conference battle.  The Owls excel defensively against the pass and Wethersfield runs a pass heavy offense so the game should feature a great battle of strengths. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.   
 
Cromwell Looking to Win Fourth Straight
 
The Cromwell Panthers did not play this past weekend and should be well rested when they welcome the Windsor Locks/Suffield/East Granby Wildcats this Saturday. The winner will take over sole possession of first place in the highly competitive Pequot – North conference. Cromwell (3-1) has won an impressive three straight conference games after a disappointing opening week loss. The Panthers will have their hands full with the Wildcats’ duel-threat Jarvis Miller, who leads the team in both rushing and receiving. Kickoff will be at 1:35 p.m.