Aside from some minor miscues here and there, most everything went the way of the Joel Barlow High varsity football team in its first game of the season. Offensively, the Falcons had little trouble moving the football, scoring four touchdowns. On defense, they surrendered none in a 28-0 shutout win at home against East Lyme on Sept. 13.
“I always say the first game is almost always my most nerve-racking game of the season because you are trying to find out who you are,” said Barlow head coach T.J Cavaliere. “You’re trying to find out who is going to play.”
Barlow’s defense shut down the Vikings on their opening drive as they netted only two yards before having to punt. While the Falcons seemed to be making progress on their first series, it was cut short when they fumbled and the visitors took over on their own 46 yard line.
A couple of Barlow penalties helped them move the ball, but they were forced to punt again and the Falcons took over their own 20.
“There were some nerves and some anxiety coming into the first game,” said Cavaliere, citing his team’s early penalties. “You have to kind of work that out. Hopefully, as we go forward, we can eliminate some of those.”
What followed was an 80-yard scoring drive, featuring five first downs. Quarterback Jack Gilbert accounted for much of Barlow’s ground game as his team advanced into Viking territory. He then completed two passes to Luke Bishop, first for 27 yards and the second for another 14 to put Barlow on the board with its first touchdown of the season. Scott Romano kicked the extra point and the Falcons led 7-0 with 9:33 left in the half.
The Vikings again had to point on their next series, giving Falcons all near midfield or another scoring drive. Gilbert’s 45-yard pass to Bishop brought the ball to the East Lyme eight. On the next play Ari Alvarez scored on a six-yard run at 5:23, and with the extra point, it was 14-0.
Barlow appeared to be in good shape to score again on its next drive getting as far as the Viking 23 before East Lyme’s Jayden Brown picked off an errant pass a minute before the half ended. Starting on their own 35 following the second half kickoff, the Falcons embarked on another
scoring drive. Grinding out the yards on runs by Romano and Jack Hall, they barged into Viking territory before a 22-yard run by Gilbert up the middle got them to the three. Hall found the end zone on the next play in the Falcons were soon up 21-0.
Having little luck moving the ball on the ground against Barlow’s defense, the Vikings took to the air with quarterback Jacob Garro throwing completions to Alex Buzzelli, Brown and Greg Paige
to reach the Falcon 30. Barlow’s secondary then stepped up, forcing four incomplete passes as the Vikings surrendered the ball on downs just before the third quarter ended.
Barlow’s final scoring drive was capped off by a three-yard run by Romano with 9:22 left for a 28-0 lead. It was not until Barlow’s last series that it was forced to punt for the first time of the night. Four incomplete passes on East Lyme’s part and Barlow’s first win was in the books.
“I thought our defense played really well tonight,” said Cavaliere. “We took away some of the things they were trying to do. Our front seven got a lot of good pressure and shut down the run.”
Barlow is now 1-1 after losing to New Milford 27-20 on Friday. They visit East Catholic on Sept. 27. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
