Isaiah Wright and Holy Cross look to break their two-game losing streak Thursday night at Municipal Stadium against Kennedy. Credit: GWImages/@GWImages
We’re approaching the midway point of the regular season (already) and we kicked off Week 5 with a pair of Thursday night games before Friday night’s big Copper Division game.
Neither Holy Cross nor Ansonia had any problems. The Crusaders got their offense back on track with a 48-12 win over Kennedy while the Arkeel Newsome-less Chargers shut out Seymour 47-0.
Our Game of the Week will be Friday in Torrington when the Red Raiders host Naugatuck in a crucial Copper Division game. Both teams will have players returning this week from various absences. If you don’t want to make the long drive up north (or if you’re planning to sit home and watch Xavier-Hand on CPTV Sports), you can listen on WATR 1320 AM and watr.com starting at 6:50 p.m.
The rest of the Friday slate includes St. Paul at Woodland, Watertown at Derby, Wilby at Wolcott and Crosby at Sacred Heart (the return of Coggins, et al).
We will have live tweets from as many games as we can, and definitely from Ansonia-Seymour, Holy Cross-Kennedy, Torrington-Naugatuck and Watertown-Derby. You can see all the scores we have in our live scoreboard, which is presented all season long by Valley Discount Oil (if you don’t see the scoreboard at first, refresh the page).
Time for the weekly hyperlink overload to Kyle’s Rep-Am Red Zone blog: A preview of Naugatuck-Torrington, this week’s “Gimme Five,” the Week 5 area picks, the impact of last week’s Ansonia-Holy Cross game, the state of the NVL, and the Week 5 power rankings are all on the blog, and in the Red Zone Kyle and Mark Jaffee face off in a staring contest and host their Week 5 Red Zone show.
What you might find especially interesting (or helpful, or not) on the Red Zone blog is my early look at local teams’ playoffs prospects. Here they are: Class S, Class M, Class L and Class LL.
The finally updated NVL Fantasy Football standings are below the scoreboard for those interested. The Predictions Tracker is updated through Week 4.
(Live scoreboard removed after each week.)
Here’s what’s happened so far in the Kyle vs. Remmy NVL Fantasy Football challenge:
Week 1- Kyle def. Remmy, 190-123
- Team Kyle: QB Mike Nicol 43, RB Arkeel Newsome 49, RB Mick Pernell 47, WR Anthony Scirpo 24, WR Rahmi Rountree 15, TE Levi Fancher 8, Ansonia defense 4
- Team Remmy: QB Tanner Kingsley 34, RB Tyrae Small 14, RB Joan Toribio 6, WR Andrew Matos 26, WR Dillon McMahon 27, TE Raeshaun Finney 0, Holy Cross defense 16
Week 2- Remmy def. Kyle, 112-97
- Team Kyle: QB Mike Nicol 27, RB Arkeel Newsome 35, RB Mick Pernell 22, WR Anthony Scirpo 0, WR Desmond Langs 12, TE Levi Fancher 0, Ansonia defense 1
- Team Remmy: QB Logan Marchi 41, RB Tyrae Small 1, RB Joan Toribio 31, WR Andrew Matos 35, WR Dillon McMahon 0, TE Raeshaun Finney 1, Holy Cross defense 3
Week 3- Remmy def. Kyle, 128-107
- Team Kyle: QB Mike Nicol 38, RB Arkeel Newsome 11, RB Mick Pernell 50, WR Desmond Langs 4, WR Jon Mitchell 0, TE Levi Fancher 0, Ansonia defense 4
- Team Remmy: QB Logan Marchi 41, RB Tyrae Small 15, RB Joan Toribio 24, WR Andrew Matos 33, WR Dillon McMahon 2, TE Raeshaun Finney 9, Holy Cross defense 4
Week 4- Kyle def. Remmy, 175-97
- Team Kyle: QB Mike Nicol 45, RB Arkeel Newsome 28, RB Mick Pernell 47, WR Anthony Scirpo 23, WR Rahmi Rountree 11, TE Levi Fancher 2, Ansonia defense 19
- Team Remmy: QB Logan Marchi 34, RB Tyrae Small 13, RB Joan Toribio 0, WR Andrew Matos 10, WR Dillon McMahon 33, TE Raeshaun Finney 6, Holy Cross defense 1
- Team Kyle: QB Mike Nicol, RB Arkeel Newsome, RB Mick Pernell, WR Anthony Scirpo, WR Rahmi Rountree, TE Levi Fancher, Ansonia defense
- Team Remmy: QB Tanner Kingsley, RB Joe Lynch, RB Isaiah Wright, WR Andrew Matos, WR Dillon McMahon, TE Brandon Kuczenski, Holy Cross defense
Our Live Scoreboard is presented all season long by Valley Discount Oil. Don’t pay too much for heating oil! Visit VDO’s website or call 203-888-4645 for more information and to inquire about the latest prices and specials. Valley Discount Oil is a proud sponsor of the NVL Football Blog!
You guys have a typo up top. The Ansonia game is not at Debarber. I believe it is a home game for them.With the team speed they have Seymour must be glad it is on grass and not on a field like Municipal.
Thank you, you’re right.
Good grief thankfully that is over. Not only does Ansonia beat you in the first quarter, manage to have a JV game even though they don’t field a JV team…..once their “second best” player eats you alive because their “best player” hurt his ankle doing much of the same to Derby….they throw some kid who used to play for YOU into the game to run all over his former team. Fun times at Jarvis.
Definitely a game the Wildcats want to forget. Good thing for Seymour, it has winnable games down the stretch. Derby and Woodland will likely be the two toughest challenges.
wont even be close ,Seymour will get beat by both teams by 4-5 TD’s
Agreed. Seymour is looking at a best-case scenario of 6-4, I think.
A few things of note in the Rep-Am Red Zone (links to everything in the main post):
Our first look at how the playoffs are shaping up: http://blogs.rep-am.com/redzone
David Coggins will play his first game in nearly two years tonight against Crosby. I caught up with him for a video interview: http://rep-am.com/articles/2012/10/12/redzone/videos/doc50778d89440b4400406419.txt
Check out the two recap stories of last night’s games, too. Links in the sidebar and the main post.
Looking forward to a great game tonight. Make sure to listen to WATR if you can’t make it to Torrington!
One more preview for Naugatuck-Torrington. Check out my key matchups:
http://blogs.rep-am.com/redzone/2012/10/12/friday-spotlight-naugatuck-at-torrington/
I’ve never seen such a lack of parity in any league ever. Is it coaching? Is it the lack of talent? Lack of off-season regimen? Trying to figure it out.
On another note, great article in the CT Post about the Matakevich kid at Temple. That kid was a man amongst boys at St. Joes. The only games St. Joe’s lost in his era were the games he missed due to injury. He is a good representation of CT football. I wouldn’t be suprised to see him in the NFL someday.
i agree fish,this is a real down year for the nvl.if a brutally weak team like seymour is looking at a 6-4 season,thats not saying much for the teams they beat.Ribbs–i know your a big attendance type guy,what did you think of the crowd for a jayvee game?
I think anyone from Seymour that came down deserves a gold star. I think it must be so boring to be an Ansonia fan these last few seasons. It is just too easy.
More people clapped for the girl in the horse costume dancing than did for you last 3 TD’s.
I thought for an early start Thursday night game the crowd was better than I would have thought. The fact that it is still a valley match up brings out a few extra heads.
Ribbs, please tell me you weren’t the one yelling “home job” for 5 minutes straight in the first quarter?
Uh….no. I sat on the A-town side for the view and colorful commentary of my neighbors. I don’t yell things at High School kids. Unless they are littering in front of my house.
Wow, Naugatuck. Well done. Mick Pernell is without a doubt the first-half MVP of the league, as far as I’ve seen. He is incredible. And Naugy is totally legit.
Wolcott and Derby are also on the tops of their games heading into a huge Week 6 meeting. That should be awesome.
Woodland also ran away with the win over St. Paul while Sacred Heart beat Crosby as Dave Coggins scored in his return.
No good games but plenty of good action across the league tonight.
Have a good weekend, folks.
A couple other notes before I pack it in:
- Ansonia fans (Seymour fans probably aren’t interested): The replay of Thursday’s game will be on CPTV Sports on Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m.
- Hand beat Xavier 40-20 tonight. It was a 20-14 Xavier lead at the half. Amazing. We’ll see how the polls react Monday night but Hand will probably be the new No. 1 team with Staples, Ansonia and Xavier all jumbled up for No. 2.
Went to last nights Xavier /Hand game. froze my butt off! great crowd, i say between 4000-5000 people. Got there a little around 6 and there were alot of people there already.My take on the game, Hand is the real deal. Big, fast and well coached. They got a beast for a running back got to be a least 230 lbs and strong as a ox.He killed Xavier all night long when they had him bottled up inside he had enough speed to break it outside and walk into the endzone.Xavier i think was a little over rated.Good team but not as good as advertised.Ansonia defiently would beat Xavier with a healthy Newsome. Ansonia has too much speed on both sides of the ball for Xavier to keep up all night long. But the Chargers would really be hard pressed to play toe to to with Hand. I think Hand would wear down Ansonia at the end, But man! what a hell of a game that would be!
I was watching a little of the game on TV vs Seymour and I cannot believe that was a Varsity team they were playing.VERY small,weak and slow and undesciplined.The game @ Palmer field was 2 levels above what Seymour brings to the field.Its not that Ansonia is not good its the fact that this years NVL is terrible and Class S is the weakest of the 4 classes.Both scenarios hurt Ansonia’s case as being recognized/ranked as the #1 team in the state.
I was shocked that Xavier got beaten the way they did in the 2nd half. Hand will deservingly be #1 till they lose. As far as the NVL this weekend I was disappointed in the Naugy final for the raiders. This league is going to have trouble finding a 2nd team to depend on this year to make any sort of noise in the State’s. Zero consistency from any other team in the league other than the Chargers. Derby will give Class S all it got to get it but it may come down to Thanksgiving and this is the year they could really beat Shelton. If Wolcott gets in they will not do much damage in a much better Class M. Naugy year in and year out is the most disappointing team in the league 2 years a go they gave it a good run but they should be no worse than 8-2 on a yearly basis and competing for a spot in L. When this year ends there is gonna be 1 really good team, 7 average teams and the rest really bad teams.
Naugy = LL.
Imagine Naugy having to face Xavier.
This week’s Wolcott – Derby matchup will likely be the best game of the year in the NVL. They are the two best teams below AHS. I see them as similar teams as they both have QB driven offenes and they are both scrappy on defense. Wolcott has a few better players than Derby and their offensive schemes are more complex than Derby. Derby has one of the fastest kids in the league and they play tough on defense. I look for a very close game.
I agree with Sanders, Hand should be #1 until someone beats them. Great job once again by Coach Fillipone and grew.
We’ll have all sorts of previews for the second half, playoff possibilities and this week’s big games.
I don’t know if I’d say Wolcott and Derby are the two best teams after Ansonia. I’d still put Naugatuck, Holy Cross and Woodland all in that next pool and it’s pretty tough at this point to differentiate between all of them.
(Cue Derby fans: Derby beat Naugatuck!)
Yeah, that happened. But I’ve heard from several people at that game who said those teams were dead even or Naugatuck was better. The Greyhounds took that loss to heart and really got a lot better since.
(Cue everyone: Holy Cross lost to Torrington!)
That also happened but I’m fairly convinced that was another one of those fluke-like, wake-up losses for the Crusaders. Everything I’ve been told points to the fact that not everyone was on the same page for Cross that morning. I think the new style of offense that emerged the other night against Kennedy has everyone back on the same page.
Regardless, the second half should be really fun.
Kyle Derby completely handled Naugatuck if not for crazy blocked punt that put Naugie back in the game, It would have been a different final score. I know it’s hard for you to remain objective but remember that Mick Pernell went no where on the ground that day. Having said that I do believe that Wolcott is the 2nd best team right now in that conference. More shall be revealed.
Like I said, I wasn’t there. Several people I talked to were and told me straight-up that Naugatuck had more potential. I trust their judgment.
And why would it be hard for me to be objective about Naugatuck and Derby? You’re losing it.
Everyone knows it pains me to agree with Joe. But he’s right. Derby dominated against the Naugy run game. I would go as far as to say Derby’s front “smacked” Naugy’s.
Naugy definitely had the size advantage but looked out-of-shape on the line especially. Pernell was not the fastest player on the field that day and Naugy’s inability to assert itself on offense is what hurt them that night.
Naugy should have beaten Derby, I thought. But Derby made big plays in key situations and stopped Pernell cold on the ground.
Now that Bradley has a few games under his belt, Naugy is definitely a more dangerous team.
Yes, I agree. I think Naugatuck has gotten better since that game than Derby but I don’t think it’s a huge margin.
It’s a meaningless debate but still.
I AM losing it Kyle. Time for a poll. Lets ask the posters if you are unbiased when it comes to Woodland and Naugatuck and Ansonia. (I know you despise Ansonia)
By the way isn’t this all meaningless debate?
We’re all done here. Pretty tough to respond to dated stupidity.