New Canaan 4th Grade Black Rolls Into Playoffs

Following an undefeated 2013 campaign, expectations were understandably high for the New Canaan 4^th Grade Black team coming into this season. And other than an opening day defeat, those expectations have been all but met – with the one goal still yet to be attained being a defense of last year’s league championship.

In the weeks following the early loss to Wilton White, New Canaan Black 4’s have won seven games in a row, outscoring their opponents by an eye-popping 199 to 89. The 7-1 record ties them with Wilton White for first place in the league, and they head into this weekend’s playoffs as the number-one seed in their conference.

Darien Double Down

After taking down the Wilton Blue 4’s for their first victory of the season, the New Canaan 4’s continued their winning ways against the Darien White 4’s. NC knew it would have its hands full with the legendary Darien back Isaac McMullin–reportedly the inspiration behind the character of “Dash” from The Incredibles…despite being born a year after the film was released.

Head coach Jason Milligan had the team well-prepared as New Canaan was able to contain McMullin, holding him to “only” two touchdowns. Meanwhile NC running back Eoin Mueller had TD runs of 47, 42 and 35 yards to lead New Canaan to a 38-24 win. QB Ty Groff had two TD’s – one via a 10-yard run and one on a 41-yard pass to WR Brendan Hagan. RB Griffin Gentner added a 15-yard run behind solid blocks from Holden Busby and Devon Christian, ultimately breaking out of two would-be Darien tacklers to score NC’s final TD.

The Black 4’s then took on the other Darien team, the Blue 4’s for their first game at Dunning Field. New Canaan didn’t disappoint the home crowd as they earned a decisive 28-12 win. Brendan Hagan caught two TD’s with Mueller and Henry Garrity adding two more with runs of 33 and 45 yards, respectively. Beckett Beatman picked up some big yardage with impressive runs behind the blocking of Colin Perkins and Reese Hanrattie.

The New Canaan defense flexed its muscles with multi-tackle performances from Dom “The Dominator” Rasso, Jack Hladick and Tucker Milligan. Gentner closed out the game with a spectacular interception off a tipped pass as New Canaan improved to 3-1 on the season.

Taking Down the ‘Fields

In their next matchup against Ridgefield, the NC 4’s had to battle not only the Tigers but also Mother Nature. Torrential rain and a howling wind whipped through Tiger Hollow, but it was Ridgefield who seemed to be the most affected by the elements. The Tigers fumbled nine times versus just two for NC, resulting in a 22-0 win for New Canaan.

Ty Groff threw for one TD, a 10-yard pass to Garrity, and ran for another from 4 yards out to lead New Canaan. Mueller got NC on the board early with a 50-yard run, sprung by huge blocks from Hanrattie, Flynn Coffey and Jason Pastushan, who also had a fumble recovery.

Will Larson, Cooper Dinan and Jeremiah Brayboy were also impressive on defense for New Canaan, as was Colin Perkins who had three tackles while providing flawless snaps in adverse weather conditions the entire game.

Defense was the name of the game in New Canaan’s next matchup against Fairfield. Beckett Beatman had a career day with five tackles while scoring his first career TD as New Canaan pulled out a 14-0 win over the Wildcats. Devon Christian also had 5 tackles for NC while AJ Bell added three tackles and a big fumble recovery. Matt Cutler and Brendan Hagan also had big tackles for New Canaan, who improved to 5-1 with the win.

Eoin Mueller carried most of the workload for the New Canaan offense, and scored the Black 4’s second TD on a 32-yard run that sealed the game for NC in the 4^th quarter. Griffin Gentner and Ty Groff also reeled off big runs, gaining first downs that helped chew up valuable time as NC earned a hard-fought win.

Wilton Wipeout

The Black 4’s knew Wilton Blue would be looking to avenge what to that point was its only loss of the season. With first place in the 4^th Grade AFC on the line, this was the biggest game of the season thus far for New Canaan. And when the final gun sounded at Wilton’s Fujitani Field, it was the visiting team who left “The Fuj” victorious as New Canaan shocked the Wilton contingent with a convincing 30-12 win.

Despite the Wilton crowd’s cries of “Get him! Get him!” Eoin Mueller had TD runs of 36, 70 and 60 yards to lead the New Canaan offense. Ty Groff added a 5-yard QB keeper behind the blocking of Milligan and Hagan. Petey Cieszko had 5 tackles to lead NC’s defensive effort, which constantly had the Wilton Blue’s reeling.

Twice is Nice

The folks who made the schedule must have been in a bad mood when they matched New Canaan up against Isaac McMullin and the Darien White 4’s twice. That being said, if there was one team up for the challenge, it was the NC Black 4’s.

This time New Canaan held McMullin to only one TD, as they rolled to a 35-20 win to close out the regular season on a high note. Ty Groff hooked up with Eoin Mueller on a 35-yard swing pass to give NC an early lead. Henry Garrity and Beck Beatman added TD runs, and Griffin Gentner scored a career-high two TD’s with runs of 14 and 5 yards to cap the New Canaan scoring in the fourth quarter. Ben Bo and Petey Ciesko did an outstanding job on defense of mitigating McMullin’s impact and keeping the winning streak alive.