Mountaineers football team suffers first loss of season

FALLS VILLAGE —Football is truly a game of inches. Friday night’s (Oct. 21) 27-20 heartbreaking loss for the Housatonic/Wamogo Mountaineers football team to a tough Enfield Raiders team, was a game of a handful of jersey.After intercepting a Jake Sutterlin (36 carries, 176 yards, two touchdowns) pass attempt with 6:14 left in the game, Enfield went to work at their own 40-yard line. The Raiders were held to short gains on first and second down, and it looked as if the Mountaineers’ bend-but-don’t-break defense was coming back to life. Enfield quarterback Tony Romano rolled out to the right, but was met by Forrest Hayden, who blew past his blocker and had a handful of Romano’s jersey. The Raider quarterback was able to break free, elude two more Mountaineer defenders and find a wide open Hugh Lindo, who then sprinted untouched for a 50-yard backbreaking touchdown. With the extra point, the Mountaineers found themselves trailing by seven with 5:14. Enfield’s defense rose to the occasion on Housy’s last drive, forcing a punt, gaining two first downs and sending the visitors to their first loss of the season (4-1 in the Uncas division of the Pequot Conference). Despite the loss, Head Coach Deron Bayer knows that a lot of good can come out of a very tough loss. “Losing a game is only a bad thing if you do not come out of it determined to get better,” he said. “We know the things we have to work on in order to get better. The boys know that they could have won that game, so while they are disappointed in the outcome,we believe that they have gained some confidence as well.”Neither team did any scoring in the first quarter, despite both squads moving the ball effectively. Jake Foley had a 21-yard run that put the Mountaineers deep into Raiders territory. Enfield’s defense stopped Housy on the next three downs, and blocked a Hayden 37-yard field goal attempt, ending the Mountaineers’ first drive. Enfield was able to get into Mountaineers territory but were forced to punt right before the end of the first quarter. It took Housy almost three and half minutes, before the running of Foley, Donyell Williams(eight carries, 23 yards), a pass completion from Sutterlin to Will Perotti(four carries, 10 yards, one reception, 22 yards), put the Mountaineers on the Raiders’ 1-yard line. Sutterlin dove in for the score, the two-point conversion was stopped and the lead was 6-0.The Mountaineers dodged a bullet on the ensuing kick off, when the Raiders’ Lindo found a huge hole and raced out to the Housy 33-yard line. A blocking in the back penalty erased the return, and set Enfield back to their own 35-yard line. This is when the Raiders went to Avery Boissy, a strong running back that Bayer had not seen on film prior to Friday night’s game. “He gave them [Enfield] another threat that was difficult to deal with,” Bayer said. Boissy was able to break off big runs on this drive and it seemed as if the Mountaineers had no answers for him. Housy’s defense did however have an answer when the defensive line of Hayden, Adam Vernali, Marc Wildman, Tyler Dean and Matt McElhone started to slow Boissy, forcing Romano to the air and out of the pocket. McElhone sacked Romano, forcing a third and 16 from Enfield’s own 42-yard line. The host team would however drive down to the Mountaineers’ 25-yard line, on the hard running of Boissy. The Raiders then went to the air again and caught a lucky break on a pass interference call, moving the ball down to the 13-yard line. Housy’s second dodged bullet of the night came when Romano was stripped of the ball on the Mountaineer 13-yard line, with 5:25 left to go in the quarter. However they gave the ball back just over two minutes later when Sutterlin was stripped of the ball and the Raiders took over on the Mountaineer 30-yard line. Boissy only needed two carries on this to score. With the Anthony Trotta extra point, the Raiders led 7-6 at the half. Bayer went for broke to open the second half as Hayden placed a perfect onsides kick into no man’s land, which was recovered by Housy. In traditonal ground-and-pound take-time-off-the clock fashion, the Mountaineer offense went to work, and with 7:43 to go in the third, Foley bounced off a pile of defenders and rumbled 15 yards for the touchdown. The extra point attempt was stopped but Housy had regained the lead, 12-7. Coach Bayer had the highest praise for Foley, who at game’s end was battered and bruised but not beaten. “Jake Foley is a true warrior,” the coach said enthusiastically. “He rarely comes off the field. We almost had to carry him to the bus, but that is true of so many of our players, like Hayden, Perotti, Williams,McElhone, Vernali and Wildman. Foley leaves it all out on the field. He has the rare combination of determination and skill that makes him a threat on both sides of the ball.”It did not take long for the Raiders to answer, however. Again it was Boissy, breaking off a 47-yard run. But the point after failed, and it was a one point Enfield lead. The Mountaineers scored for the last time with 1:06 left in the third as Sutterlin plowed in from two yards out, then did it again on the two-point conversion. Once again Housy was back in front, 20-12. Enfield then began a drive that took its toll on the Mountaineers, as the host team could substitute in three and four players at a time. A tiring and banged-up Housy defense wavered enough for Boissy to punch in a 15-yard touchdown run. Add Trotta’s extra point and the game was knotted at 20. Despite the end result, the coach knows it wasn’t the size of dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. “You cannot be prouder of a group of men like ours when you see the way they fight on every down for four quarters,” Bayer said.Next up for the Mountaineers will be a homecoming day game on Saturday, Oct. 29, against Avon at 2 p.m. Thomas Brissett is the statistician for the Mountaineers.

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