Canton linebacker Joey Fitzgerald sets new school record with 18½ sacks

Canton’s Joey Fitzgerald had a team-record 18 1/2 sacks this fall — a new school record.

CANTON, November 29 – The Canton High football team won just one game this season but there were some remarkable performances on the gridiron by the Warriors in 2018.

Senior linebacker Joey Fitzgerald set a new single season school record with 18½ sacks this season. He had 4½ sacks in an 18-16 victory over Woodstock Academy along with 3½ sacks in losses to Ellington and the Coginchaug/Hale-Ray/East Hampton co-op team on opening night.

It will give Fitzgerald 13th place in the Connecticut High School Football Record Book. His per game average of 1.8 sacks a game puts him in the top 10 among single season sacks.

Fitzgerald also forced four fumbles, recovering two. He forced a fumble and had a sack in the 20-6 season-ending loss to Granby the night before Thanksgiving in the cold and snow on the turf field in Canton.

Canton High coach Dante Boffi said Fitzgerald was physically ready to play this season.

“He conditioned his butt off in the off-season,” Boffi said. “He studied film and played incredibly disciplined football. Of all the tape I watched and assessed this season, he had an (opposing player) break contain (against him) three times.

“His motor never stops and despite being up against much bigger competition on the edge, he used his speed and smarts to make things happen.”

Fitzgerald also ran for a team-leading four two-point conversion runs

A few other notable achievements on the field for Canton this fall:

• Senior quarterback Dugan Lloyd completed 65-of-176 passes for 870 yards and six touchdowns – the third-most yards passing since the team was resurrected in 2007.
• Lloyd threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Conor Mackin in the win over Woodstock Academy – the longest TD pass of the season and the third longest in school history.
• Nathan Biega’s 83-yard kickoff return against Rockville in November was the third longest kickoff return in school history.
• Gavin Wood caught 15 passes this season to give him a career total of 64 receptions in four years, a new school record. Tyler Plourd caught 60 passes from 2007-09.

Canton High football records