Mountaineers’ pristine 4-0

FALLS VILLAGE — Ask any high school football coach what the worst thing for the team might be and they will usually agree: downtime. Ask Housatonic/Wamogo Mountaineers Head Football Coach Deron Bayer that question after this past Saturday’s 39-8 manhandling of Granby Memorial at Ahearn Field in Granby (which lengthens a pristine record) and he might have a different opinion.“We were sharp and crisp in running the things we wanted to do,” Bayer said. “Having the week off I think helped us. This was probably our most complete game of the season, and now we’ll get back to work and get better and go from there.” The outcome and statistics showed the week of rest payed dividends in a big way. Housatonic is 4-0 for the first time since 1990.Jake Foley(six carries, 22 yards, two touchdowns) gave the Mountaineers a 6-0 lead in the first quarter, a lead that they would never relinquish. The second quarter was The Jake Sutterlin Show (26 carries, 228 yards, four touchdowns), as he rumbled to the end zone on runs of 10 and 20 yards. Foley added a 1-yard touchdown run as well as two-point conversion on a pass from Will Perotti, and the Mountaineers enjoyed a 26-0 halftime lead. Bayer was quick to praise not only Sutterlin but his offensive line as well.“Jake Sutterlin had a big day because our line and back did a great job opening up things,” Bayer said. “We were able to run our base play off tackle a lot in the first half and when they did some things to take that away, we were able to go with other options. Linemen Forrest Hayden, Adam Vernali and Erik Kenniston have provided a fresh spark to the offensive line to complement the blocking of Matt McElhone and Mark Wildmon.” This showed with nearly 350 yards on the ground. Granby had no answers to stop them.Granby finally was able to crack the Mountaineers’ defense for their only offensive scoring of the day as Calib McMullin scored from 8 yards out — but they were quickly answered by Sutterlin, again from 20 yards out; and after the third period, it was 32-6. Sutterlin and Hayden combined for Housy’s last score on a 9-yard run and two-point conversion early in the fourth after which Bayer started subbing out his starters. “We played our most complete game of the year,” he said. “However, we still have a great deal of work to do.We had occasional lapses in the kicking game and pass coverage.We will have to improve in these areas if we are going to compete with the remainder of the teams on our schedule.”Granby added a safety for the last points of the game at 39-8.Hayden and Foley both recognized that Granby was very physical and big, but the Mountaineers were ready for the challenge. “They were big, real big, and strong, but we had an answer for them all game,” Foley said after the win. Bayer is also very pleased with his regular single-wing offense this year. “A nice develpoment for us has been the success of the passing game. Sutterlin and Perotti have worked hard at learning the reads and throwing progressions. Jeremy Stiewing has stepped up as a sure-handed receiver.”The remainder of the Housatonic/Wamogo schedule does not get any easier for Bayer and his team. With one exception, their remaining opponents are all larger Pequot-Uncas division Class L and M teams with equally impressive won-lost records. “We’ve been lucky to stay healthy and we have been playing good football,” Bayer said. “The teams that we are going to be playing now, five of the six we didn’t beat last year. So these are teams we have to really step up and play well against. “We’ve played well so far but we have to keep getting better and keep playing like we did Saturday against Granby.”Next up will be road trip on Friday night, Oct. 21, to Enfield to face a tough Raider team coming off a 10-8 win over Pequot rival Stafford Springs. Thomas Brissett is the statistician for the Mountaineers.

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