WHS-SEYMOUR

In a pre-game chat, I asked Waterown High School football coach Mike Veronneau whether, from his viewing of the game film, Naugatuck had been that good or Seymour had been that bad in the opening game betwen the teams.
"Neither," was his reply. "it just looked like one of those nights, because Seymour has some good players, so we can't think we're going to roll over them...that would be a mistake."
After Seymour's first drive of the game between Brass Division rivals at the Mills Athletic Complex, Veronneau had to be wondering whether it might be one of those nights for his Indians.
It wasn't, as the Indians, led by Curtis Pomeroy's 203 rushing yards, took control of the game in the second half and won going away, 26-7 to improve to 2-0 on the season.
"We made the defensive adjustments we had to make at halftime," said Veronneau, and by tasking away the middele from them, we forced them to do some things they may not have wanted to, we forced some mistakes and created turnovers which we converted."
The Indians, did indeed create points off turnovers, and withe their air game grounded, it was left to quarterback Matt Quatrano and Pomeroy to ground out the yards needed to put points on the board.
After Seymour quarterback Luke Grabowski led a masterful drive which would have brought tears to the face of Bill Parcells, a 17-play, 75-yard march which consumed 7:02 and put the 'Cat on top, Quatrano went to work.
After a 23-yard Pomeroy carry on the Indianb's first play, the senior caled his own number and took off on a scintillating 52-yard run through the Seymour defense to bring the Indians to within 7-6 after a missed PAT, which has been a problem for WHS in the early going.
Costly penalties hurt both teams in the second quarter, but the Indians got a break when, on the 16th play of another looooong Seymour drive, Jon Wilson's fumble at the WHS 5 with 1:34 remaining kept them within one point.
The turning point of the game came with just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter when Quatrano's bone-jarring hit on Seymour's Michael Fraser shook the ball loose after a completion at the Watertown 40.
Cornerback Carlos Arvelo alertly scooped the ball up and went the other way, 60 yards into the end zone to put the Indians on top to stay.
From my observation point, it did not appear that Fraser had the ball long enough for the play to be ruled a completion, but not hearing a whistle, Arvelo was savvy enough to pick the ball up and run.
"Heads-up there, and a big hit by Matt," said Veronneau.
There was no quit in Tom Lennon's Wildcats; they immediately stalked their way downfield again, this time mixing the quick pass for small but significant chunks of yardage along with the run, al the way to the WHS 9.
That's where disaster struck - again, as Watertown's Joe Cianciolo recovered a fumble to help preserve the lead.
Despite a silly taunting penalty, one of several unnecessary flags which had veteran observers shaking their heads, Watertown, with Quatrano and Pomeroy running through monstrous holes opened up by o-linemen Cianciolo, Jeremy Plourde, Albion Lumani, Dan Delgado and Kyle Cave, simply wore down the Seymour defense, charging 91 yards in eight plays, ending with Quatrano's 20-yard fourth quarter run that put WHS in a commanding poition at 20-7.
"I also have to give credit to the lead blocks of our fullbacks Ryan Milo and Brett Boll, said Veronneau. "They made the big gaps that Curtis and Matt exploited."
The Indians put the icing on their victory cake on Arvelo's 14-yard run with 7:34 left; from there it was matter of getting Pomeroy his 200-yard game, which the Indians did, as he carried on nine of the Indians' last 11 plays.
Did it feel like a 26-7 win, coach?
"Not really, not when you're down 7-6 at halftime," laughed Veronneau, who then got real serious.
"We still have a lot of work to do, and we'll have our hands full with St. Paul's next week," he said.
No doubt the Falcons (1-1, 0-1 in NVL Copper) will come in to the MAC with a bit of a chip on their shoulders after yielding 62 points to Holy Cross in September 24.