One of the unbeatens fell from the high school football ranks last Friday. It was Rockville, which lost to Cromwell/Portland, 29-19 at home.
Cromwell/Portland (8-1) went up 22-0 at halftime. Rockville (7-1) rallied in the second half, scoring 12 points in the third quarter and the Rams got another touchdown in the fourth but it wasn’t enough.
Cromwell/Portland quarterback Jess Elfreich had three touchdown passes, two to Tyler Cipolla and one to Paul Wimbish-Sperrazza while Mike Sitaro had one to Vaughn Payne.
Before Friday, the Panthers had pulled off a couple of close wins over Valley Regional and Haddam-Killingworth and coach Sal Morello said he felt fortunate to get the wins because they could have gone either way.
He felt fortunate again after Friday.
“That was close, oh yeah,” Morello said. “We just got off to a good start. At some point, you knew they were going to settle down and make some adjustments and they did. We were fortunate to get off to a fast start, which I thought was crucial against them.
“They played really good in the second half. Two good football teams. They have a good staff. We told our kids, ‘They’re going to be getting challenged at halftime. They’re not going to lay down for us.’”
Cromwell/Portland is ranked third in Class S behind Capital Prep and Ansonia while Rockville is ranked fourth in Class M.
“It was a good way to get our kids battle-tested,” Morello said. “We’ve been tested a handful of times and that was probably our biggest test.”
Here are some of the top performances from last week:
Nate Blumes, Conard: Blumes had five touchdowns, the second most in a game in school history, and carried the ball 16 times for 125 yards in a 48-13 win over Platt Friday.
Brady Cersosimo, Conard: Cersosimo completed 13 of 20 pass attempts for 261 yards (246 in the first half) and four touchdowns in Conard’s win over Platt.
Conner Finnerty, Glastonbury: Finnerty completed 12 of 15 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns in a 51-32 win over Enfield
Hayes Horst, Granby/Canton: Horst rushed for 94 yards on eight carries and scored a touchdown and kicked seven extra points to help Granby to a 49-7 win over MSW.
Jesus Martell, Maloney: Martell had 10 receptions for 176 yards and a touchdown in Maloney’s 41-22 win over Southington Friday.
Chris Morales, East Catholic: Morales threw four touchdown passes, three to Joey Montalvo (and one a 61-yarder), and completed 12 of 18 attempts for 212 yards in a 35-17 win over Plainville.
Ethan Nedinsky, Maloney: Nedinsky completed 22 of 41 pass attempts for 355 yards and six touchdowns in Maloney’s win over Southington.
Tyler Napierkowski, Haddam-Killingworth: Napierkowski had two touchdowns in a 45-0 win over the Coventry co-op Friday.
Jake O’Brien, Sheehan: O’Brien had four touchdowns, completing 6 of 6 passes for 138 yards in a 54-0 win over Wilbur Cross.
Sawyer Pequita, Enfield: Pequita completed 16 of 22 passes for 181 yards and had four touchdowns (two passing, two rushing) in a loss to Glastonbury.
Austen Standish, Platt: Standish completed 18 of 24 passes for 207 yards in Platt’s loss to Conard.
