ANSONIA – The Ansonia Tigers varsity football team won the first half 44-0 over the visiting Tri-County North Panthers, and the Tigers JV squad defeated the Panthers starters 8-7 in second-half play to win the WOAC matchup 52-7, keeping Ansonia undefeated in conference action.
Both varsity and JV squads were well disciplined on the field, keeping penalties to a bare minimum while eating up the clock with their impressive ground game.
“The last few weeks, the guys have done a good job of being conscious of holding onto the football and minimizing penalties,” said veteran Ansonia coach Adam Hall. “Anytime we struggled this year, we inflicted it on ourselves. We have been cleaning that up – that’s what we want to see.”
Ansonia got on the board first with a 15-yard touchdown by junior Cainan Robinson at 8: 55 in the opening quarter, and Jacob Schmitmeyer made good on the two-point conversion run for an early 8-0 Tigers lead.
Zane Henderson put the Ansonia up 14-0 on a seven-yard TD run with 3:50 on the first quarter clock. Schmitmeyer carried the two-pointer conversion run over the goal, giving the Tigers a 16-0 first-quarter advantage.
Ansonia bumped its first-quarter lead to 22-0 with a Layne Bowman to Ben Zerkle 23-yard touchdown pass with 0:40 on the clock.
Henderson ran for a two-yard touchdown at 9:54 in the second. Bowman connected with Cameron Grilliot through the air, making good on the two-point conversion for a 30-0 second-quarter Ansonia lead.
Lander Shives scampered for a 15-yard Tigers touchdown at 8:12 in the second period and had his number called on the two-point conversion run, good for a 38-0 lead.
Ansonia scored its last first-half touchdown at 2:28, with Nate Good running it in from nine yards out, giving the home team an impressive 44-0 halftime advantage.
With the teams taking the field in the second half, Coach Hall kept the game respectable, sitting his varsity starters the entire second half while giving the Junior Varsity team valuable varsity time on the field.
The Panthers’ Aiden Ritchie got North their lone TD of the night on a 16-yard touchdown run. Nick Meyer’s PAT kick split the uprights, making it a 44-7 Ansonia lead with 0:51 on the third quarter clock.
Ansonia got the final scores of the night on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Shellhaas to Luke Ressler and a two-point conversion pass to Kaeden Waymire for a final score of 52-7, setting up a showdown between the Preble Shawnee Arrows and the Ansonia Tigers.
“Every week you’re playing to win the conference, and if we lose this week, it messes everything else up that we want to do, so we had to be focused on this one,” Hall said of keeping his team focused on the North game and not looking ahead to the Arrows. “I thought the guys did a good job of doing that. Now that we’re past it, now we know and are thinking about the big game next week.”
The Arrows travel to Ansonia on Saturday, October 19th, for a conference game with the two WOAC teams putting matching 7-0 conference records on the line.
