Shelton’s Jake Falanga (9) celebrates his game-clinching interception in a 17-10 victory over Cheshire Friday, Sept. 7 at Xavier’s McHugh Field. (Photo Sean Patrick Bowley)
MIDDLETOWN — For much of the last month, the breaks were beating the boys from No. 6-ranked Shelton.
The Gaels were without a field (Finn Stadium is being resurfaced) and had to play their opener far, far away at rival Xavier High School’s McHugh Field in Middletown.
Jake Roberts, their senior starting quarterback, received a scare when he was injured in a preseason scrimmage.
They’d had limited practice time because of a heat wave. And, to top it off, they found themselves in a dog fight with Cheshire.
But with a minute remaining of a tie ballgame and Cheshire in possession with a chance to pull off an upset, the breaks finally went Shelton’s way.
Senior Jake Falanga pounced on a loose ball deep in Cheshire’s end to set up Jake Roberts’ go-ahead 8-yard run, and then sealed Shelton’s 17-10 victory with an interception.
Let Shelton’s Jake Falanga — who had both the fumble recovery, then the game-clinching pick in the final minute — describe what happened: #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/fNwAJj4Sih
— Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) September 8, 2018
And so Shelton, touted as one of the best teams in the SCC this year, survived a dicey first encounter.
Whew.
“I’m not making any excuses, but it was a tough week,” said Shelton coach Jeff Roy, whose team improved to 1-0 and will play a second road home game when it faces Xavier.
“With Jake being dinged up, the field, the heat… Every team it’s been like this, but It’s tough to get any kind of continuity. We didn’t have any rhythm, we didn’t have many things going because we didn’t have a lot of practice time. And it showed.”
Roberts, who injured his leg just seven days prior in a scrimmage vs. Ansonia, didn’t start. Instead, he was eased into the game and rotated, first with senior Jack Carr and later with junior quarterback Michael Callinan.
Carr, one of Shelton’s top returning players, left the game after seeing limited action in the first half. The Gaels also turned the ball over three times.
Cheshire, meanwhile, smelled blood. Behind junior quarterback Jason Shumilla, who ran for a 38-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 at halftime, and Jake McAlinden, whose runs helped set up the tying field goal by Jotham Casey early in the fourth quarter, the Rams had the No. 6 Gaels sweating.
But Here’s Jake Roberts diving in for the winning TD, Shelton 17-10 over Cheshire #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/J39Rf8eGC2
— Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) September 8, 2018
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Falanga said. “We try and not listen to the hype and stuff like that because it’s never good to be overly confident and overly cocky.
“We just wanted to come in here and play football, baby.”
With the game hanging in the balance, Falanga backed up his words.
Cheshire got the ball back at its own 13 with just under two minutes remaining. But on a dive, Shumilla lost the ball in a scrum, unbeknownst to most of the players and coaches on the sidelines.
“All of the sudden I hear ‘Ball!’ and I just stopped,” said Falanga, a defensive back. “…I just turned around and it’s on the ground.”
Though he got tackled, not everyone on the field knew what had happened, especially not Cheshire coach Don Drust.
Speaking of exaggerated demises…
Cheshire QB Jason Shumilla races 35 yards to tie the score, 7-7. Mid 2nd (with video this time!)
#cthsfb pic.twitter.com/x67zQPui4K— Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) September 7, 2018
“I’ve got to watch the film, to be honest with you,” said Drust, whose team graduated all but four starters from last season. “It was a pile of people. I have no idea.”
Regardless, Roberts bulled in from 8-yards out and Falanga made sure the score stuck by intercepting a prayer thrown by Shumilla.
“I feel great that we won the football game but, you know, we’ve got to get better,” Roy said. “But, credit to (Cheshire), they came out, played hard and we knew they were going to play hard.
“Credit to our kids, too, for the second half. They hung in there in the second half and wound up making the play in the end of game and got out of here with the W.”
While the end was disappointing, Drust and Cheshire didn’t leave discouraged.
“We’re going to push and push and we’re going to continue to learn from the good and the bad,” Drust said. “That’s the most important thing. We’ve got to learn from this now and learn why it happened and we’ve got to get better from it.”
Christian Russo goes up and gets this damn ball to deprive Shelton, 3 min left. Tie game 10-10
He’s a freshman #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/cDfBnyg74y— Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) September 8, 2018
Christian Russo, a freshman, had an interception late in the game for Cheshire, while Ryan Mancl and Jacob Dubois recovered fumbles in the first half.
Michai Barnes scored Shelton’s first touchdown. Giorgio Ghazal led the Gaels with 58 yards on eight carries and set up a 37-yard Nick Andrade field goal. Mike Lockavitch added 10 tackles for the Gaels.
“We’ve got a lot to fix, we’ve got a lot to things to work on,” Falanga said. “But, the good thing is, it’s Week 1. We’ve got a lot of time to fix stuff and we’re coming out strong.”
Shelton 17, Cheshire 10
| Cheshire | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3 | — | 10 | |
| Shelton | 7 | 0 | 3 | 7 | — | 17 |
S– Michai Barnes 14 run (Nick Andrade kick)
C–Jason Shumilla 38 run (Jotham Casey kick)
S–Andrade 37 field goal
C–Casey 25 field goal
S–Jake Roberts 8 run (Andrade kick)
Shelton 1-0, Cheshire 0-1
Little correction. Roberts did start, but was relieved occasionally by junior Michael Callinan. Shelton’s defense played well all game. Sheltons offense needs to get in sync. But if and when they do. Many teams are gonna have a hard time.
Carr started the game at quarterback in the wildcat.
Callinan, yes, fixed. Looked at wrong roster.
I agree. The SHS O needs to get motivated and that is the problem or maybe Cheshire’s D was and is game. I was relieved they got the fumble or they would be seeing a double overtime maybe. Last year Cheshire woke them up and maybe they did again to prepare for the fireworks to come and then the Westies took a hurt but then I never ever took North Haven for granted even as a player they are a team as is Hand that will bite. Welcome to the ball SCC.
Shelton played down to their opponent or they just are overrated. Cheshire will be a 4-6 or 5-5 team this year tops. If Shelton plays like this against NH, Prep, or West Haven they will lose badly. Shelton got lucky they played a young team tonight. When I saw they had freshman playing varsity that is statement of how many new starters they have and just how young they are.
I agree and i am a Gael fan. Shelton was not impressive and without the score board would had thought Cheshire to be the winner. Anyhow their coaching staff will see it and they will adjust otherwise they will be in for a tough season.
Hats off to Cheshire. They out hustled, outplayed, out gained shelton. I was particularly impressed with Cheshire’s tough run defense and their QB is a great athlete. I’d be shocked if Shelton gained 120 yards of total offense. Not one first down in the second quarter. Shelton body language was lethargic and they looked unprepared: Cheshire laid the blueprint of how to beat Shelton,
Yes,Shelton has had a rough pre-season with no field,losing practices,QB hurt, that is all true.I watched the game on the live stream last night.Too me it looks like they have a hangover from the WH playoff game last year.Whatever the case may be they need to snap out of it quickly.Cheshire completed one pass last night and still moved the ball enough on the ground all night against a defense that is supposed to be good at stopping the run.Right now Shelton has more issues than people realize.Cheshire did a good job controlling the LOS as did Ansonia last week.The offense is completely out of sync.Anyways,a lucky win is still better than a loss, but the Gaels need to wake up quickly and get back to playing Shelton football.
Gaels Fan was in attendance so you know what that means. Here’s your official Gaels Fan after action report:
Well, it will indeed be a game that goes in the W column, and that’s a good thing for the Gaels, but as the article states and as Coach Roy and the Gaels realize as they are quoted in the article, this was a sloppy win. One that, on paper at least should not have been this close. The Gaels return all but 3 or 4 starters, and Cheshire returned about three or four in total from last year, so Cheshire was playing with a far less experienced team. Credit goes to them in keeping this one close until the very end. The Cheshire QB Shumilla is going to be a great asset for Cheshire this year. He played confidently and wasn’t afraid to punch it right up the middle on a quarterback keeper. Tough to tell how Cheshire is going to develop in its passing game as this was primarily a ground and pound game on both sides.
Shelton looked good on its opening drive ultimately scoring after a roughly seventy yard drive that ate up a lot of clock time. But in the second quarter they looked flat and uninspired. Defensively, the Gaels were on point for most of the night and as I suspected after their scrimmage with Ansonia handled the run pretty well. Shumilla likely would have had more yardage overall if it wasn’t for the Gael’s pretty staunch defense of the run. They mostly held the Rams to low yardage and often stopped them at the line of scrimmage or behind it. At least three or four times during the night Cheshire was at 3rd and 12 or 14 to go for a first down. The one exception was when Shumilla was able to get about 35 yards on a run when he made a fake handoff to his RB and kept the ball running in the other direction. The Gaels line backing corps seems as solid as they come to me. They hit hard. A shout out especially to Tyler Janik in this regard. He is a one man wrecking crew and is one of the hardest hitters the Gaels have produced lately. Tough to tell how the Gaels pass defense operates as Cheshire only threw about five passes all night. One resulted in good yardage, one in an interception, and some for small yardage.
Offensively, as someone noted already, the Gaels were not in sync last night. Roberts was in and out of the game, perhaps feeling the previous weeks injury a bit. Their passing game was almost nonexistent, and what few passes that were thrown were bobbled and one was an interception. Carr was not in the game for much of the second half if not the whole half. I don’t recall specifically when he went out. Let’s hope he’s not injured in any way. Perhaps they pulled him to give the other backs some time. Giorgio Ghazal and Michai Barnes did an admirable job of running for the Gaels as well. Ghazal bulled his way up the field on several carries. He often got two or three extra yards while people were hanging on to him trying to bring him down. And Barnes scored the first touchdown for the Gaels on a nice run from about ten yards out. But, overall the Gaels inability to score more in this game will be something they will analyze and seek to improve. Coach Roy however, hits the nail on the head as I suspect most teams will have a few hiccups in the first game or two due to the lack of practice time due to the heat. Some teams lost several days worth of practice. They’ll iron things out as long as we don’t get more heat waves !
So ultimately the game was an enigma. Some small questions were answered, but some remain unanswered and yet to be explored further. The most obvious of those is how the Gaels will develop their passing game, and their pass defense as the season grinds on. What is evident is that the Gaels, like all teams, have their work cut out for them and will put their nose to the grindstone to hopefully improve their performance.
It was a bit of a pain to travel an hour away for a home game due to the work at Finn stadium. Hopefully their next game against Xavier will be a bit closer to home.
And apparently SPB was in attendance at the game last night but I didn’t spot him once.
Enjoy the games ! And Roll Gaels !
I was, as always, in attendance at this SCC tilt last night.
Gael’s Fan’s assessment is fair but has some holes in it, but they should be expected as he watches games as a fan not as someone who has coached in these battles.
Shelton dominated both lines of scrimmage last evening and their defensive front 7 stiffled Cheshire O, except for one long run by QB. Shelton offense played most of night without Roberts and Carr, their 2 best offensive players and just used hammer and moved ball methodically. They fumbled 3 times which accounted for thwarting their drives. The problem with Shelton offense is even when Roberts healthy he is challenged throwing. They have good weapons at slot and X and Y, but cannot get them ball.
Gaels Fan is spot on about Janik one of Shelton LBs. The kid #43 for Shelton was the best player on the field for either team.
Mr. F, by no means did Shelton dominate either line of scrimmage. The Gaels did not have a first down in the second quarter. Cheshire stuffed the run the whole night, and they could not complete a forward pass.
Other than the first scoring drive, they did nothing. Shelton is very lucky Cheshire didn’t continue to run triple option against them, it would have been ugly.
Shelton turned the ball over 4 times and gave up big plays which is a recipe for defeat. Shelton’s front 7 played well, especially in the second half and they ultimately won the game.
It’s a win which I’m happy about, but nobody feels good right now. It was a wake up call for sure.
Very good game. Shelton has much to improve on to be ranked 6th and Cheshire was a very well balanced team with much to beware of to anyone they play. My concerns are from anyone that watched from NFHS are the talk from what I can assume to be the offensive coach or head coach of Cheshire. Needs to take care of the language used. I passed off the first wtf as it happens but wow it continued with more intensity!! Just saying if one were coaching they need to take care or have someone step up to make him aware that the sound is being recorded and even though should not use this type of language as a high school roll model. If it was from the audience they ok it happens.
Again fans watching the game will have their opinions on the line battles and other aspects of game and that is all well and good. As I stated before, my assessments are that of an ex-coach and result from my watching the games and then watching the HUDL films. The films do not lie.