Versatile Granby/Canton offense rolls to seventh win of season

Granby/Canton’s Hayes Horst ran for a106 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries in Friday night’s Pequot Conference win over North Branford. More game photos

GRANBY, Nov. 22, 2024 – The Granby/Canton football team is doing what they should be doing at this time of year – beating up on teams they are supposed to dominate.

The Bears used some versatility on offense with three players scoring touchdowns, two running for more than 100 yards and quarterback Vinny Forte passing for 122 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-7 Pequot Conference win over North Branford on Friday night.

A week earlier, Granby/Canton (7-2) rolled to a 49-7 win over the Morgan co-op program.

That’s two wins and 91 points in the past two weeks for a Bear team that is on the cusp of earning a CIAC Class SS tournament berth for the fifth straight year.

“Right now, we can go from one offense to another based on how the defense is,” Granby/Canton coach Erik Shortell said. “I like our offense right now. We can accordion in and out of everything. We don’t have to sit in one situation or one offense. We can run multiple offenses.”

This is a Granby/Canton team that allowed North Branford (4-5) just 129 yards of offense – 12 yards in the air and 117 yards on the ground. Fifty-nine of those yards came on the opening drive of the contest when the Thunderbirds marched to the Granby/Canton 17-yard before the Bear defense stiffened and drive died on the eight-yard line.

“We’re playing as one on defense and it looks great,” Shortell said. “When the ball is in the air, we’re attacking it. When the ball is on the ground, we’re swarming (to the runner). It’s a gang-tackling defense.”

The Bears close out the regular season against the CREC co-op (1-7) on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the CREC’s Academy of Computer Science and Engineering in Enfield. Granby/Canton hopes to be in the field of eight teams when the Class SS tournament begins on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Granby/Canton hopes to beat the CREC Colts and finish 8-2 for the third consecutive season and the fourth time in the last five seasons.

Granby/Canton’s Ryan Cuniiowski, left, and Carter Chambers celebrate a touchdown during Friday’s Pequot Conference win over North Branford. More game photos

North Branford marched down the field on their first drive, aided in part by a 15-yard pass interference penalty against the Bears. The Thunderbird drove to the Granby/Canton 17-yard line.

However, on third down and four from the 11, the Bears gave up just a single yard to QB Matteo Anderson. On fourth down, Craig Miller got just two yards and the Bears forced a turnover on downs.

Granby/Canton made a statement on their first offensive play with Hayes Horst bursting up the middle of the field for a 58-yard gain. He finished the drive with a 23-yard touchdown run, also up the middle. Horst kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

On their next drive, Granby/Canton got runs of 19 and 13 yards from Carter Chambers and a 12-yard reception by Horst, Chambers finished off the drive with an 11-yard run for a 14-0 lead with 6:48 left in the second quarter.

The Bears scored two touchdowns in the final 2:40 of the first half to extend their lead to 28-0. Chambers (nine carries, 113 yards) had a 39-yard run in a drive that concluded with a one-yard touchdown run from Horst with 2:40 left in the half.

North Branford lost three yards on its next possession and punted and after an 11-yard return from Chambers, the Bears started on the Thunderbird 49 with 1:28 remaining in the half.

Forte completed a 33-yard pass to Kendall Thomas to the North Branford 15-yard line, Two plays later, Forte (9-12-0, 122 yards, 2 TDs) found Chambers on a short four-yard pass to push the lead to 28-0 with 40 seconds left.

“It was fun getting to move around and get the ball,” Chambers said. “But it is an accomplishment (due to) the team. They’re making the blocks for me and if they don’t block, I can’t get the touchdown.”

Ryan Cuniowski caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Forte in the third quarter and Chambers scored his third touchdown with a 10-yard run with 54 seconds left in the third quarter.

It was the second straight game for Chambers with three touchdowns. He ran for three TDs  in the win over Morgan last week.

Horst finished with 106 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. He also caught a pass for 12 yards. … The 35-point margin of victory is the largest in the series, which North Branford leads 3-2. The Bears beat the Thunderbirds for the first time a year ago, 39-13, after three consecutive North Branford wins to begin the series in 2016.

VIDEO: In this video, there were two fumbles on the play. First, Granby/Canton QB completed a pass to Ryan Cuniowski, who fumbled the ball after catching it. North Branford linebacker Chase Nugent was able to come up with the ball and was looking to move upfield before Granby/Canton’s Kendall Thomas hit Nugent and stripped him of the ball that Granby/Canton’s Hayes Horst recovered, allowing the Bears to keep the ball on this second quarter play.

Granby/Canton 42, North Branford 7
At Granby
North Branford (4-5)          0    0    7  0  — 7
Granby/Canton (7-2)         7  21 14  0  — 42
First quarter
G: Hayes Horst 23 run (Horst kick), 1:51
Second quarter
G: Carter Chambers 12 run (Horst kick), 6:48
G: Horst 1 run (Horst kick), 2:40
G: Chambers 4 pass from Vinny Forte (Horst kick), 0:40
Third quarter
G: Ryan Cuniowski 29 pass from Forte (Horst kick), 9:59
NB: Craig Miller 1 run (Isaiah Franklin kick), 5:09
G: Chambers 10 run (Horst kick), 0:54
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Granby/Canton – Carter Chambers 9-113, Vinny Forte 7-39, Hayes Horst 7-106, Colton Triba 2-minus 5, Keandre Hunter 6-28, Joel Izquierdo 1-minus 3; North Branford – Craig Miller 5-45, Matteo Anderson 3-8, Greg Ferrano 8-23, Jack Siegel 13-41
PASSING: Granby/Canton – Vinny Forte 9-12-0, 122; North Branford – Matteo Anderson 3-10-0, 12
RECEIVING: Granby/Canton – Ryan Cuniowski 2-31, Ben Vrabel 2-15, Kendall Thomas 2-56, Chambers 2-8, Horst 1-12; North Branford – Siegal 1-3, Ferraro 2-9

More game photos