Xavier football hangs on to beat Cheshire, 21-20
The Xavier football team rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit and hung on at the end to beat Cheshire 21-20 in an SCC Tier 1 game Friday night.
There were fumbles, a lot of penalties, big plays and a big interception by Xavier’s Carey Harwood with 44 seconds left to seal the Falcons’ victory.
“[Cheshire coach] Don [Drust] and I were talking before the game and we said, ‘This will probably be another typical Friday night in the SCC and it was,” Xavier coach Andy Guyon said. “It’s always a war. They’re so well-coached, they’ve got great players, great kids.
“Our kids just fought and fought and fought. They were going to do whatever they could to come out on top and they did.”
Cheshire (3-2) led 14-7 at halftime and the third quarter was scoreless. Then it got interesting.
A few minutes into the fourth, Xavier (3-2) was on the Cheshire 49 and advanced four yards to the 45. On fourth and 6 for the Falcons, Cheshire had a 5-yard penalty and Xavier was able to get a first down on the next play. Five plays later, the Falcons scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Drew Kron to Maxwell Wojtusik to tie the score at 14.
And with 3:42 left, Xavier scored again, this time on a 10 yard run by D.J. Wright and it was 21-14, Falcons.
But on the kickoff, Cheshire’s Tristan Washington returned the ball 82 yards, streaking down the sideline for a touchdown. Vazquez missed the extra point and Xavier still led 21-20 with 3:30 left.
Xavier had the ball and the lead, with 1:48 left in the game before Kevin Derrico recovered a fumble by Kron and Cheshire had one more chance.
But Harwood’s interception ended that.
Xavier scored first when Kron had a touchdown on a 1-yard quarterback keeper with 6:08 left in the first quarter. The Falcons’ kick was good and they led 7-0.
And just like that, on the first play of the next series, Cheshire evened it up. Quarterback Michael Simeone threw a screen pass to EJ Quint who took the ball 70 yards down the field for a touchdown. Vazquez kicked the extra point and the score was tied at 7.
In the second quarter, the Rams scored on another big play. Russo ran 62 yards for a touchdown with 6:16 left in the first half. Vazquez had another extra point and Cheshire led 14-7.
With 53 seconds left in the half, Xavier had the ball at the 50. The Falcons made it to the Cheshire 10 after Kron hit Timmy Conroy with a 45-yard pass but penalties killed the drive and the Falcons had to settle for a field goal, which was missed. The Rams led 14-7 at halftime.
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
