Home Care In Cheshire, CT

SOUTHINGTON — Matt Jeffery has done a lot of things on both the football and lacrosse fields.

He had never intercepted three passes in a game, however. Until Thursday.

"First time, I think," said the Cheshire senior. "I don't think it'll be the last, though. I'm serious."

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And when Jeffery says he's serious, you take it ... well, seriously. The nation's No. 1 lacrosse recruit, who's heading to Notre Dame next year to play lacrosse and football, hadn't played in nearly two months due to a hamstring injury. He didn't know whether he'd play on Thursday morning, and the Rams are glad he did.

Not only did Jeffery pick off three passes, he also scored three touchdowns to lead Cheshire to a come-from-behind, 34-20 victory over Southington in the Apple Valley Classic at Fontana Field.

The victory snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Blue Knights in the annual Thanksgiving Day matchup. More importantly, it clinched a spot in the MM playoffs.

"There's a tremendous amount of passion and care for football in both towns," Cheshire coach Don Drust said. "You cross that line at Route 10 and you can feel the change from red to blue. You know, going both ways, it's two communities that care. They have passion for their towns, for each other, and they care about each other. When you combine two towns and put them on the football field like that, you get tremendous football games. That's what Thanksgiving is about."

Southington (6-4) had already clinched a berth in the Class LL playoffs, though it will likely have to start on the road, rather than at home.

The Blue Knights led 13-7 at halftime thanks to a pair of Rashard Williams touchdowns. But Cheshire (8-2) quickly tied it on its opening drive of the latter half on a four-play, 67-yard drive highlighted by a 42-yard run from Jeffery Gonzalez.

Southington engineered a 73-yard scoring drive of its own on its next possession, capped by C.J. DiBenedetto's 30-yard pass to Evan Anderson. The Rams nearly immediately countered, when Liam Suomala got wide-open by about 15 yards off a gadget play, but quarterback Aiden Gregorich's throw bounced just off his fingertips.

However, the Rams wound up scoring on the drive on Gonzalez's 6-yard pass to Colin Sheehan. Williams fumbled the ensuing kick return and Cheshire's Tommy Wilkinson recovered at the Blue Knight 32. Gregorich immediately hit Lucas Chymbor with a scoring pass to put Cheshire ahead for good.

Jeffery picked off two passes over the final four minutes, the first setting up his own 25-yard scoring run on the very next play, the second pretty much clinching the Rams' victory.

"From the beginning of the season, I told this team I was going to be there if I was hurt or not," Jeffery said. "This year's been a lot of ups and downs for our team, but we hold our ground here."

Anderson was named Southington's Offensive MVP and Aaron Borkowski the defensive MVP. Gonzalez (21 rushes, 134 yards) was Cheshire's Offensive MVP.

And Jeffery was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

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"Matty's an unbelievable human being," Drust said. "He's one of those guys that, as a coach, he makes us look really good. I'm really fortunate to share space with him. He's the type of kid that you hope your son grows up to be like, or your daughter marries. That's the ultimate compliment."

Cheshire 34, Southington 20

WEST HAVEN — For some, it may be hard to believe a football team could average allowing less than five points per game. It comes as no surprise to members of Cheshire.

Playing a stifling defense which allowed just 181 yards of offense, the state’s second-ranked team topped Notre Dame-West Haven 28-3 in a Southern Connecticut Conference contest at Veterans Stadium in West Haven Friday evening.

“I give (Notre Dame) a lot of credit,” Cheshire coach Don Drust said after his team improved to 7-0 and has allowed just 33 points in seven games. “They played really, really hard. They showed up at home. At the end of the day, they won a state championship last year. We knew what we were going to get. They were going to show up.

“We played hard. We ran to the football. It made up for a lot of mistakes at the end of the day. We are athletic. We are fast. It’s an effort thing. We play with tremendous effort. It is tremendous effort for all six to eight seconds of the play.”

The Rams were so good on defense they never allowed the Green Knights more than 74 yards of offense in any quarter, twice allowing just 43 yards in the first and third quarters.

Senior Jeffery Gonzalez, who scored twice on the offensive side and ran for 86 yards, also had a key first half interception which allowed Cheshire to take a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.

“They are not extremely big, but they are very well-coached,” Notre Dame coach Joe DeCaprio said after his team fell to 2-5. “They are always in position. If you watch them, I can guarantee you there weren’t many solo tackles out there. They have six kids at the ball on every play. It’s amazing.”

The Green Knights did not make things easy on themselves as each time they got things going, penalties stalled the momentum. Notre Dame trailed just 7-0 after one quarter, but twice had possession inside Cheshire territory before penalties took over.

“We are a very young team right now,” DeCaprio said. “We are making mistakes, and obviously, they are a great team with a great staff. They adjusted to our adjustments. We knew we weren’t going to come in here and pound the ball. We play really hard. We are going to play our brand of football, Notre Dame football. I’m proud of my kids for playing hard. They were better than us.”

Leading 21-3 at the half, the Rams took control of the game on the opening drive of the second half, marching 65 yards in nine plays to take a 28-3 lead.

Quarterback Aniston Marsh completed passes of 16 and 15 yards, Gonzalez ran for 14 yards, and Marsh capped the opening drive of the second half with an 11-yard scoring run.

“It’s big, it’s very nice,” Gonzalez said of being 7-0. “Again, we just have to keep on chugging along. 7-0 is great, but that is not the goal. We expect to be 7-0. We have bigger goals we haven’t achieved yet. We have Southington. We have playoffs. Those are really the goals we are looking at. It is good to get the win. It is keeping us on track.”

The Green Knights let the Rams know they were in for a battle in the first half, moving the ball on offense and putting up a fight on defense. But penalties hurt Notre Dame in the opening half.

Despite gaining just 120 yards in the opening half, Cheshire took advantage of big strikes to take the halftime lead, including a 25-yard scoring strike from Marsh to Evan Russo for a 7-0 lead with 1:20 remaining in the first quarter.

Cheshire’s Gonzalez, who played well on both sides of the ball, intercepted a Joe Capasso pass to set the Rams up at the Notre Dame 11. Two plays later, Gonzalez ran in from 11 yards out on the first play of the second quarter for a 14-0 advantage.

“Our team, we come out and play really hard,” Gonzalez said. “We play as a team. We harp on that. Defense is all heart. Offense, we have to make plays. That’s what we do week in and week out.”

Notre Dame used an interception of its own to score its only points of the first half. Donovan Darden came up with the interception, and after the drive stalled, Davin Garamella put the Green Knights on the board with a 27-yard field goal with 8:45 remaining in the first half to get Notre Dame within 14-3.

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With both teams holding, the Rams finally increased the margin to 21-3 with 1:54 left in the half. Marsh hit Gonzalez in stride for a 39-yard reception, before Gonzalez fumbled at the 2, and recovered in the end zone for the score.

“I learned a long time ago a couple of things,” Drust said. “Winning is really hard. You have to enjoy them when you get them because they are really hard to get. Tomorrow morning, we will move on. We will enjoy this tonight. We will show up next week and get ready for North Haven.”

Marsh was 10-of-15 for 168 yards in the win for Cheshire. Capasso finished with nine completions for 141 yards for the Green Knights.

Player of the Game

Jeffery Gonzalez – Cheshire senior ran for 86 yards, scored two touchdowns, and had an interception as the Rams improved to 7-0.

Quotable

“You don’t get guys walking around. It is not okay. Our seniors lead that and put that expectation out there. Here is the way it is going to be,” Cheshire coach Don Drust on his defense.

Cheshire 28, Notre Dame-West Haven 3

MONROE — It was a complete effort for the Masuk football team to open the Class MM state playoffs Tuesday night.

Quarterback Rob Klein accounted for four touchdowns and the Panthers’ defense held Cheshire without a first down for the majority of the first half as No. 2 seed Masuk defeated No. 7 Cheshire 42-21 at Benedict Field. The game wasn’t that close.

“I’ve been a part of three great years of Masuk football and this is by far the best group,” said senior tailback Jason Champagne, who scored Masuk’s first two touchdowns.

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Masuk will now host No. 3 seed Wilton in Sunday’s Class MM semifinals at 12:30 p.m.

Masuk’s defense was able to contain Cheshire senior Matt Jeffery, who played several series at quarterback for the first time since early in his junior season. He scored on a 15-yard fumble return for a touchdown to open the scoring for Cheshire, and added an interception later on, but was held in check on offense.

“We had our white board, put a big 4 (Jeffery’s jersey number) and circled it. Whenever he was on the field, we had to know where he was,” Masuk interim coach Jeff Lever said.

Masuk’s initial first down didn't come until there was under 4 minutes left in the first half. By then, Masuk had scored 28 unanswered points to take a 28-7 lead at halftime.

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After Champagne scored his two touchdowns, one on a 25-yard punt return and the other on a 32-yard run, Klein rushed for a touchdown and threw another to Colin Hope.

In the third quarter, Klein threw another touchdown to Hope and also to Max Viglione to make it 42 unanswered points for the Panthers (9-2). Klein said he is fully recovered from a right wrist and left hamstring injuries that he said has bothered him for much of the season.

“Once we’re playing good, they (Cheshire) can’t stop us,” Klein said.

The Masuk players have managed to fare well in the midst of an investigation that has had head coach Steve Christy on administrative leave since July 5.

Earlier this month, interim head coach Brian Halapin resigned, as did assistant coach Eric Giordano, who had been placed on leave the same day as Christy. Those resignations nearly led to the remainder of the season being canceled.

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“We’re still playing for Coach (Steve) Christy, Coach G (Giordano) and Coach (Brian) Halapin,” Champagne said, “We fully support whatever they do.”

Lever, who didn’t join the team until after the season started, was then named interim coach and assistants Nick Chacho and Jerry Peck remained on board so the Panthers could continue their season that now moves into Sunday’s semifinal.

“They're children, young men. All they want to do is play,” Lever said “It’s hard, the whole thing is hard, all around. But the boys have been willing to buy in and trust. It’s hard for the boys to trust but they did.”

Lever credited defensive coordinator Eric Linderbeck with the game plan that helped contain the Rams’ offense most of the night.

Cheshire (8-3) had to defeat Southington on Thanksgiving Day to get into the Class MM tournament. Tuesday was the final game for Jeffery, who will be playing men’s lacrosse at the University of Notre Dame after one more season at Cheshire this spring.

“He (Jeffery) gives them (the younger football players) something to look at and say, ‘This is how your supposed to act and be and conduct yourself and grow and work and the human you are supposed to try and emulate and be like,’” Cheshire coach Don Drust said.

Player of the game

Masuk quarterback Rob Klein: Senior threw for three touchdowns and ran for another to help the Panthers score 42 unanswered points.

Quotable

“Listen, that kid Champagne is a really, really good football player. You try to keep touches out of his hands, it’s hard to do.” — Cheshire coach Don Drust on Masuk’s Jason Champagne

Masuk 42, Cheshire 21

Cheshire girls volleyball is looking to play for its third-straight Southern Connecticut Conference title this week, but the Rams have already celebrated a big milestone this season: 600 career wins for head coach Sue Bavone.

“Any of these milestones are program milestones, you know, it's not just a ‘Sue Bavone’ milestone,” Bavone said.

After 29 seasons at Cheshire, where she also coaches the boy’s team, Bavone would much rather talk about everyone else who did the winning along the way.

“There's always some class that gets to be in on the actual big number,” Bavone said. “But we always we never lose sight of the classes that came before that got to that big number.”

Those “big numbers” have happened a lot in the Rams’ gym.

“I still remember the time we celebrated 550 and I was like, 'Wow, that's insane,'” senior Emma Danaher said. “She deserves so much recognition for what she's done.”

Recognition Bavone passes on to the consistency of her assistant coaches, but that her players are more than happy to share.

“I've been saying all my friends are like, ‘oh like 600 wins. That's so many.’ And I'm always like because she knows what she's doing,” junior Eva Catalanotto said.

Of course, the road to 600 wins has come with some bumps. Just ask Bavone about her first ever game.

“I was so nervous. I locked the balls, the medkit, everything, I locked them and my keys in my car,” Bavone said.

One of her players got a broken nose in that game, too. But they won. Win number one on the road to 600.

“Everyone always asks, ‘Why didn't you coach college?’ and I like getting whatever I get and trying to figure out how to make it successful,” Bavone said.

That’s the challenge every year in a town like Cheshire that has strong girls sports programs for volleyball, the sport at the bottom of the alphabet, as Bavone says, to compete with.

Though, her program does plenty of competing of their own.

“Since 1994, every single girl that we've coached is on one of those banners,” Bavone said, pointing to the championship banners in the high school gym.

“Every kid's walked out of here with either a league championship or a conference championship or a state championship or all three ... so they've all experienced winning and they've all experienced losing luckily not as much," she continued.

The Rams will try for their 17^th overall SCC title this week and then shift their attention to the state championships.

CHESHIRE — When you play against the West Haven football team, it’s not if, but when a big play will change the game.

On Friday night at the Maclary Athletic Complex, it came when Armani Reid received a punt inside his team’s own 10-yard line with his team clinging to a five-point lead late in the third quarter.

The senior saw the punt rolling in front of two Rams’ defenders and stepped up to pick up the ball. He made one defender miss and stiff armed another and was off the races for a 92-yard score to ice the No. 3 Blue Devils’ 25-14 win over No. 6 Cheshire.

“I’ve got to go get this one,” Reid said he told himself. “So I went and got it and I saw the clear lane and made one (player) miss and I had a lot of blockers and I saw (the end zone).”

It was Reid’s third punt return of the season and fourth touchdown on special teams. West Haven coach Rich Boshea said that the coaching staff has said no team will kick the ball to Reid, but Boshea reminded them that in high school sports anything can happen.

“They made a mistake tonight and Armani made another one of his unbelievable fantastic punt returns,” Boshea said.

Boshea said that Reid and Maloney’s Donte Kelly, who had five special teams touchdowns going into Friday’s game, should go head-to-head on return highlights.

“Both are exciting players,” he said. “Armani is our guy here and we are really glad because we wouldn’t be 8-1 without him.”

Reid has been a top player for the Blue Devils (8-1, second in Class LL playoff rankings) for two seasons and has scored 13 touchdowns so far this year. Cheshire knew they couldn’t let him get the ball.

“At the end of the day, he is tremendous,” Cheshire coach Don Drust said. “He is dynamic and every time he touches the ball he can score. We know that; everyone in the state knows that and if they don’t they should because he can.”

The punt was a good one and if anyone but Reid was back there it would have pinned the Blue Devils back in their own territory, up less than a score, but Reid knew he had to make a play.

“I stiff armed one (player) and I saw a wall of white (jerseys) and I just followed my blockers,” Reid said.

The Reid touchdown was the exclamation point on a great night for his team, which forced six Cheshire fumbles and recovered five.

“After that North Haven (loss) a bunch of teams forgot West Haven has a good defense,” Reid said. “A lot of teams forgot, we had to remind them.”

Cheshire, which dropped to 7-2 and into eighth in the CIAC Class MM playoff rankings, was missing five starters due to injury, including its top player Matthew Jeffery, leading tackler Jack Brewster, and starting quarterback Aniston Marsh.

“It hurts and it stings,” Drust said. “We had six turnovers or something like that, you can’t do that against a good football team, but I will never question how hard they play, their heart.”

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Player(s) of the Game

Eleven of them to be exact. The West Haven defense came to play on Friday night. The group forced six fumbles and recovered five of them.

Quotable

“What’s that kid's name that return that punt again? Oh Armani Reid, he’s not that bad,” West Haven coach Rich Boshea said with a laugh.

West Haven 25, Cheshire 14