Coaches Jason Miska and Chris Silvestri celebrate Ryan O'Connell's touchdown during New Canaan's 55-12 win over Westhill, Oct. 5, 2015. Credit: Terry Dinan
Scenes from New Canaan's 55-12 win over Westhill, Oct. 5, 2015. Credit: Terry Dinan
Despite last week’s controversial postponement of the New Canaan-Westhill football game, it was soon apparent that nothing short of a natural disaster was going to stop the Rams Monday night at Dunning Field.
Senior quarterback Michael Collins threw six touchdown passes while New Canaan’s defense had five interceptions, including a 70-yard pick-six from junior Ryan O’Connell on the game’s opening series as the Rams dominated the Vikings 55-12.
New Canaan (3-0) seemed to be playing with a chip on its shoulder after a series of comments on various social media sites from both sides erupted following last Friday’s announcement that the game would be moved to weather due to adverse weather conditions. According to the Stamford Advocate, Westhill head coach Frank Marcucio filed a formal complaint about the postponement.
After O’Connell’s TD put the Rams up 7-0, New Canaan increased the lead to 10-0 after a 29-yard Peter Swindell field goal. New Canaan made it 17-0 after Collins hit junior wideout Andrew DeFranco for a 25-yard touchdown. Minutes later the Rams went up 24-0 on a 21-yard Collins-to-Swindell score to close out the first quarter.
New Canaan would not slow down in the second quarter as Collins threw four touchdown passes—a 22-yard catch and run to senior running back Matt Cognetta, 23 and 61-yard TD’s to Swindell and an eight yard scoring strike to DeFranco. When the smoke cleared at halftime it was 49-0 New Canaan.
Meanwhile the New Canaan defense, which was under a substantial amount of scrutiny heading into the season due to significant graduation losses, did not allow a Westhill first down until midway through the third quarter. Junior Tom Root, despite playing with a cast on his hand, had two of New Canaan’s five interceptions on the night.
Westhill (1-2) finally got on the board in the fourth quarter with two touchdowns against New Canaan’s reserve defense, while the Rams answered with a scoring pass from junior backup QB Spencer Williams to junior Jack Rechtermann for a touchdown.
With his six touchdown passes Collins now has 17 on the year. With six regular season games left, plus potential FCIAC and State postseason contests, Collins is on pace to challenge Matt Milano’s single-season record of 42 touchdown passes, set back in 2010.
After a bye this week, the Rams will travel Danbury to take on the Hatters on Saturday, October 17 at 1:30pm.
