HARTFORD – It took almost two quarters, but once Granby scored, the Bears got going and never looked back.
Sam Attianese scored twice in the Bears’ 20-3 win over SMSA//University/Classical. The victory put Granby (4-2) back on a winning track after suffering a frustrating 41-14 loss to Stafford/Somers/East Windsor just before last week’s bye.
“I’m going to blame it on the bye week. We came out flat,” Granby coach Erik Shortell said. “That was by far the worst first half of football we’ve played all year. We got it together. A made few halftime adjustments and we played how we should be playing all year.”
Trailing 3-0 late in the second quarter, Granby quarterback Jackson Rome hit Attianese for a long gain down to the SMSA 3-yard line.
Rome connected with Attianese for the score on the next play to get the Bears on the board before halftime.
“We kept it rolling from that point on,” Attianese said.
Coming out of the break, the Bears looked like a different team.
Attianese scored for the second time – a 3-yard run – to open up the second half.
“We didn’t have as much energy as I liked, as I wanted,” Attianese said. “We came out at halftime, we knew we weren’t playing our best game. We knew we need to pick some things up.”
After a first half that saw the Tigerhawks run the ball often and move the ball, the Bears defense shifted gears to slow them down.
“That was the emphasis during our bye and this week: To run the ball,” said SMSA coach Kevin Quinn, whose team fell to 2-4.
“That was the game plan. We thought we would be successful. We were. But we had three, third-and-1s that we didn’t convert in the first half. Then we gave up a cheap score at the end of the half when we had a mental breakdown on defense.”
Rome extended the Bears’ lead to 20-3 in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard run.
“We really rebounded,” Attianese said. “We were able to step up our front line.”
Granby 20, SMSA/Classical/University 3
Granby 0 6 6 8 – 20
SMSA 3 0 0 0 – 3
SMSA – Aaron Wood 22-yard kick
G – Sam Attianese 3 catch from Jackson Rome (XP blocked)
G – Sam Attianese 3 run(2pt failed)
G – Rome 1 run (Dylan Disabella catch from Rome)
