Football: West Haven runs its way past Hamden, 43-6

By Alec Turner
@alecturner39

HAMDEN - The three-headed rushing attack of West Haven High’s Chris Chance, Jakai Manning and Anthony Godfrey was too much for the Hamden Green Dragons Friday night, as the Blue Devils won 43-6.

Hamden (1-7, 0-3 in Southern Connecticut Conference) allowed over 250 yards on the ground to the high-powered attack of West Haven (6-2, 4-1 in SCC).

Hamden’s head coach Tom Dowty believes that the Green Dragons need to work on their performance for the full four quarters.

“I think we need to realize we need to maintain our focus the entire game,” Dowty said. “At the beginning we were playing real well, we just lost that focus.” 

Hamden’s senior captain Kwadir Delgado-McIntyre agreed with coach about the team’s consistency.

“We need to keep our discipline, we play good in the first five minutes then just lose it,” Delgado-McIntyre said. “It’s the discipline, not a lack of talent.”

After a stop on defense to start the game, West Haven went to its ground impound and marched the field on a 17-play, 70-yard drive that lasted almost eight minutes. Godfrey capped off the drive with a 2-yard jet sweep on fourth-and-goal for a touchdown.

In the middle of the drive, a 17-minute blackout interrupted the game. With 5:16 left in the first quarter, all the lights at the new Joseph Bruno Field went out.

According to Hamden athletic director Tom Dyer, the lights went out due to a malfunction in the lights' automatic timer.

For the players, they were just trying to stay active.

“I just started jogging and dancing around to keep my energy up,” Delgado-McIntyre said.

Hamden came immediately back on the next drive to score on the second play of the drive on a 54-yard run by junior quarterback Stanley Arrington, Jr. After a muffed snap, Arrington rolled left to break two tackles to bring it to the end zone.

After the Arrington touchdown, it was all Blue Devils from there.

Chance started the next drive with a 35-yard run and Godfrey scored his second touchdown of the night. After three more scores, including two from Godfrey, the Blue Devils went into the half with a 36-6 lead.  

Dowty was not surprised with the performance, or style of West Haven’s offense, it was just a lack of execution on the defensive side of the ball by Hamden, he said.

“You know what you’re getting with West Haven because they run the same offense every year,” Dowty said. “They work hard at our offense and they are crisp at it.”

The Blue Devils defense, led by junior defensive tackle Byron Dickens, held the Green Dragons to just 99 total yard on offense in the first half. Senior captain running back Angelo Dimonaco could only produce one yard on six rushes in the first 24 minutes of play.

The final score of the game came on the first drive of the half for West Haven. Quarterback Tim McCarthy went 3-for-3 with 49 yards on the drive which was capped off by 14-yard touchdown reception by Sheilan Velazquez.

The senior leaders of the team will look to keep the team up after another difficult loss for the struggling Green Dragons.

“We’re going to find ways to stay motivated and keep working hard,” Delgado-McIntrye said.  “It’s football.”

​With two games left in the regular season, the Green Dragons travel to Shelton next week to face the undefeated Gaels before their annual Green Bowl against Notre Dame High School on Thanksgiving.