New Canaan’s John Wise on his second 4 TD game this season #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/RNFV9keDNP
— Scott Ericson (@EricsonSports) October 19, 2019
NEW CANAAN — Coming off one of the most lopsided losses of Lou Marinelli’s long run as head coach at New Canaan was made worse by 14 days without a game because of the bye week.
New Canaan got back to basics, running the ball between the tackles and got back in the win column with a 28-7 victory over Warde Saturday afternoon.
“Having to live with that loss (58-14 to St. Joseph) for two weeks was rough,” Marinelli said. “We had a chance to give the kids some time off and get back to working on our base offense and our base defense. Hopefully we redeemed ourselves in front of the home fans.”
New Canaan junior running back John Wise scored all four touchdowns for the Rams, amassing 121 yards on 19 rushing attempts.
Wise 5 yard TD run 7-0 New Canaan over Warde :11 left in first #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/JieBeM4WsM
— Scott Ericson (@EricsonSports) October 19, 2019
Wise’s first score came with 12 seconds remaining in the first quarter on a 6-yard run.
Wise scored twice in the second quarter on runs of 19 and 14 yards, pinballing his way into the end zone on both scoring runs.
His last touchdown came in the third quarter on an 8-yard run.
Warde, playing with backup junior quarterback Andrew Conklin under center, had chances to stay in the game but could not capitalize.
Wise 19 yard run. 14-0 New Canaan 11:29 left in half #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/OfOcvfpR37
— Scott Ericson (@EricsonSports) October 19, 2019
The Mustangs missed a 30-yard field goal in the first quarter on their second drive of the game.
Later, Conklin and receiver Jack McKenna nearly connected for a touchdown pass, but the ball was just out of McKenna’s reach.
The 6-foot-5 McKenna ran wild, at times, catching eight passes for 90 yards.
“Our effort was good. I didn’t like our physicality in the first half. I thought we let them get the inside run a little too much but we figured that out at halftime,” Warde coach Duncan DellaVolpe said. “We played really well on the backside defensively. We went off script and played and went for it. We were close and I am happy with the effort but we need to catch a break somewhere and pick up a win up here or there.”
Warde cut the lead to 21-7 in the third quarter on a 2-yard plunge by Ryan Janz.
Janz 2 yard run cuts New Canaan lead to 21-7 8:03 left in third #cthsfb pic.twitter.com/Li0n5ESnTf
— Scott Ericson (@EricsonSports) October 19, 2019
PLAYER OF THE GAME
John Wise, New Canaan. It was Wise’s second four-touchdown game of the season. He also got in the end zone four times against Stamford. Saturday was his first 100-yard rushing game.
QUOTABLE
“We had a bye week last week and wanted to fix everything up. We came out here and played hard and gave it our best shot,” Wise said. “The line worked really hard. We ran the guard and tackle pulling to one side and we got some holes in that. Mario and Luigi are our two plays where we pull and get guys up the middle.”
NEW CANAAN 28 WARDE 7
WARDE 0 0 7 0—7
NEW CANAAN 7 14 7 0—28
NC—John Wise 6 run (Nick Radman kick)
NC—Wise 19 run (Radman kick)
NC—Wise 14 run (Radman kick)
W—Ryan Janz 2 run (Jess Pitaniello kick)
NC—Wise 8 run (Radman kick)
Records: W—1-4; NC—3-2
