Simsbury Runs Away With Second Half

In Opener At Farmington

It was supposed to be a celebration of the new turf field. The black tee shirts worn by more than half of those in attendance proclaimed,“This Is Our Turf.”

While the turf itself may belong to the home teams at FHS, on Friday night, the scoreboard belonged to a determined Simsbury Trojans squad during the opening game of the season for both teams.

Simsbury opened the scoring with 5:46 left in the first quarter when QB Grasson Foster found Sean Penney for a 28-yard TD reception. Farmington followed it up when first year QB Mike Popolizio (7-18, 114 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) scored on a forth-down run from ten yards out. A missed PAT had the Indians down 7-6 with 2:49 left in the first.

Pops (95 yards rushing on 15 attempts) found Jack Sucato on a swing-pass and the senior took it 65 yards with 6:26 left in the half for Farmington’s only lead of the night at 12-7.

The ensuing kickoff landed out-of-bounds and the Trojans put together a five-play drive that resulted in a 48-yard Foster pass to Jake Feldman. The PAT was no good and Simsbury lead 13-12 with 3:51 to go in the half.

Farmington’s next possession ended with a punt and Simsbury looked to score again if not for a couple of sensational plays in the secondary by the Indians CB Jon Henry (6 tackles) and LB Connor Martin (7 tackles). Simsbury headed to the locker room with a 13-12 advantage.

The Indians would not score again. Their inexperience at the skill positions translated into an increasing sense of frustration.Simsbury scored at 1:07 of the third on a one-yard run by Foster. The two-point conversion put them up 21-12. The following kickoff was short and perfectly placed for the Trojans to recover it and score two plays later on a 5-yard Elijah Barrows run and took a 28-10 lead into the forth quarter.

When asked later about the collapse, Coach Chris Machol replied, “Turnovers and lack of depth. We had a few plays go against us, and then there was a lack of effort and focus in the last few minutes of the third (and) into the fourth (quarter). What I told the players was that I can accept a loss, but I was really disappointed by the quit they showed. That is something that we will never accept here at FHS and will be addressed this week at practice.”

For as tough an effort given by two-way linemen Dan Hardiman (9 tackles), Matt Goralski (2 tackles), Vinnie Stevens (5 tackles), and Akash Kumar (5 tackles) – the Trojans slowly wore them down as the game moved past halftime. Xavier Amos added some flash by rushing 9 times for 75 yards along with three tackles. Jack Sucato lead the Indians with 10 tackles.

Machol added, “We saw what we were afraid of, we have a lot of new players in key positions, and there were some blown assignments that allowed a good Simsbury team to take advantage and get some big plays. We also knew that speed on the outside would be an issue and they exposed that getting to the edge on the toss sweep. Also depth was an issue on the OL/DL.”

Simsbury scored twice within 33 seconds halfway through the final quarter. An 80-yard, 10-play drive erased 7:33 off the clock and ended with a Foster 5-yard TD run for a 35-12 lead. Penny intercepted Pops on the next Farmington possession and returned it to the five. Barrows took it in from there and the Trojans took a 42-12 win back home to Simsbury.

Coach Machol, when asked what his team can build upon,“I thought we ran the ball well, and controlled the game between the tackles. A couple of young players stepped up and showed that they will become quality varsity players in the future.”

Farmington (0-1) plays at RHAM on Saturday at 1pm.