Granby’s Dominic Pagano recovers a fumble during Tuesday night’s Class S quarterfinal game in Granby. The Bears fumbled six times and lost three.
GRANBY, Dec. 1 – Was it the rain? The cold? The playoff atmosphere? Or was it a solid, hard-hitting Seymour High team on the other side of the field that handcuffed the Granby High football in the Bears’ first-ever appearance in the CIAC Class S playoffs?
It was a little bit of everything Tuesday night in a cold, steady rain. Granby fumbled the ball six times and lost it three times – twice in the first quarter. Seymour was strong on both sides of the ball as junior quarterback Jaylen Kelley ran for four touchdowns and threw a 47-yard touchdown pass as the No. 6 Wildcats rolled to a 56-28 victory over No. 3 Granby.
Granby’s Logan Strain scored three touchdowns but the Wildcat defense was able to bottle up Pagano, who ended up the evening with minus three yards on 16 carries. Granby (10-1) trailed by nine after one quarter but never got any closer.
“I can’t tell you what the fumbling issues were. We worked with the wet ball all week. It (fumbles) happens,” Granby coach Rich Gadoury said. “I think it was the heat of the moment and we got caught up in it. It was the first time ever for Granby (in the playoffs). It was nerves. It was weather. It was everything.”
With its first playoff win since 2008, the Wildcats (10-1) advance to next Monday’s Class S semifinals at No. 2 Bloomfield (11-0), which beat East Catholic, 28-20.
“(The fumbles) were huge for us,” Seymour coach Tom Lennon said. “We knew it would be a wet ball and a wet game.”
Seymour’s Daniel Robinson makes a tackle on Granby’s Dominic Pagano in Tuesday night’s Class S quarterfinal. Seymour prevailed, 56-28.
The turnovers helped give Seymour the early lead but their hard-running offense secured the game. Seymour led 21-12 after one quarter but scored three times in the second quarter to take command. Kelley scored on a 25-yard run with 6:42 left in the second quarter to extend the lead to 14 points.
And then, Granby coughed up the ball for the third time. The first two fumbles came on pitches from quarterback Dominic Pagano. The third fumble came on a handoff inside. Five plays later, sophomore Bobby Melms scored from the nine-yard line for a 35-12 lead.
“Just like we’ve done all year, (we feature) whoever (the defense) is taking away,” Lennon said. “We have the luxury of having different guys and different athletes that can do the job. If (the defense) starts to take away Jaylen, we can give it to Bobby. It’s a big reason we’re still playing football in December.”
Seymour began its next drive on its own 34-yard line. With about a minute left in the quarter, the Wildcats had fourth down and two on their own 42-yard line.
“I asked (Kelley) if he had a play and he always has a play, so I said let’s go for it,” Lennon said. And like most things for Seymour on this evening, it worked out well. With a strong second effort, Kelley picked up the first down.
“(Kelley) is the best athlete we’ve seen all season,” Gadoury said. “He’s the real deal. He does it all for them. He throws the ball well and his legs don’t stop churning (forward). I’ll bet he is still running right now with the football into the end zone.”
Two plays later, Kelley found receiver Jake Bleau wide open down the right sideline for a 47-yard touchdown pass – his 22nd touchdown pass of the season for a 42-12 halftime lead. “That really gave us momentum going into the half,” Lennon said.
With his four rushing touchdowns, Kelley has also run for a team-leading 22 touchdowns. It was his third four-TD performance of the season.
Granby, which remained on the field in the rain during halftime, marched down the field with a strong running from Connor Field, who had a 21-yard run to the Seymour 19-yard line. Logan Strain, who scored three times for Granby, ran in from the three-yard line and Pagano’s two-point run cut the Seymour lead to 42-20.
But there would be no miracle comeback on this evening. After recovering an onside kick attempt, Seymour marched 55 yards on nine plays with Melms scoring from the six for a 49-20 lead. Melms finished with three touchdowns, matching a season-high that he had against Wilby earlier this season.
Some big plays fueled Granby’s first two scores. Strain had a 35-yard run that set up the five-yard TD run by Field to cut the Wildcat lead to 14-6 in the first quarter. Later in that same quarter, Field had a 57-yard scamper to set up Strain’s first touchdown run from four yards out.
“Our game plan was to crash o them early, hit them and really force their decisions (offensively),” Lennon said. “We were successful. I’m proud of our kid’s defensive effort tonight.”
It was a bittersweet ending for Granby, which won a school record 10 straight games, won its first Pequot West championship and earned the overall Pequot Conference championship. There were tears of sadness, in part, because this magical season was complete.
“It was a dream come true,” senior Andrew Migliaccio said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted but I know these boys worked hard.”
Seymour 56, Granby 28
At Granby
Seymour (10-1) 21 21 7 7 — 56
Granby (10-1) 12 0 16 0 — 28
First quarter
S: Jaylen Kelley 1 run (Rocco Vertuccio kick), 8:11
S: Kelley 12 run (Vertuccio kick), 7:29
G: Connor Field 5 run (pass fails), 5:41
S: Bobby Melms 3 run (Vertuccio kick), 2:46
G: Logan Strain 4 run (run fails), 1:08
Second quarter
S: Kelley 25 run (Vertuccio kick), 6:42
S: Melms 9 run (Vertuccio kick), 4:37
S: Jake Bleau 47 pass from Kelley (Vertuccio kick), 0:43
Third quarter
G: Strain 3 run (Dominic Pagano run), 7:29
S: Melms 12 run (Vertuccio kick), 3:58
G: Strain 12 run (Pagano run), 0:19
Fourth quarter
S: Kelley 5 run (Vertuccio kick), 10:08
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Granby — Gabe Florentino 4-minus 6, Dom Pagano 16-minus 3, Connor Field 20-146, Logan Strain 10-108
PASSING: Granby — no passes
RECEIVING:
RETURNS: Pagano (G) 1-19 KR, Strain (G) 1-6 KR, Wharton-Rodriguez 1-56 KR
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