Connect with us

Football

Sheehan runs over Granby/Canton in Class SS quarterfinal victory

Granby/Canton stops Sheehan High running back Joshua Durant during Tuesday’s Class MM quarterfinals in Wallingford. Sheehan won, 20-6.

WALLINGFORD, Dec. 3, 2024 – The Sheehan High football team was well aware of the challenge awaiting them with Granby/Canton and their versatile quarterback Vinny Forte coming to town for Tuesday night’s Class SS quarterfinals.

“That quarterback can do a lot of things and we knew we would have to deal with him all game,” Sheehan coach John Ferrazzi said. “You got a kid who can run the option and drop back and throw in the spread game. That presented a lot of problems for us defensively.”

So, the Titans kept Forte off the field. No. 3 Sheehan ran for 283 yards and controlled the game with three long scoring drives to beat Granby/Canton, 20-6 on Tuesday night to advance to Sunday’s semifinal for the second straight year.

Sheehan (9-2) had three scoring drives of 73 yards of more. A second quarter scoring drive of 76 yards took 13 plays and ate up 4:58. A second half scoring drive over 76 yards took 17 plays and ate up 6:23.

Granby/Canton (8-3) is still looking for their first-ever state tournament win in football but head coach Erik Shortell was proud of his team’s efforts.

“I know many people thought we were going to get rolled (beaten by a large margin) but we battled,” he said. “It was a battle out there. I’m proud of the guys. They did very well against a tough team that plays a tough schedule.”

Sheehan plays in the Southern Connecticut Conference and their only losses of the season came to Killingly, the top seed in Class SS who scored 75 points in their win on Tuesday over Ellington, and Fairfield Prep, the top seed in the Class LL tournament.

“We were able to move the ball, we just couldn’t finish drives,” Shortell said. “We went toe -to-toe with a very good program.”

Granby/Canton, in the state tournament for the fifth consecutive season, had an impressive opening drive with Forte (15 carries, team-high 78 yards rushing) running for gains of 22 and 27 yards on the drive.

Granby/Canton QB Vinny Forte in Tuesday night’s Class MM tournament game in Wallingford.

A 27-yard run put the Bears on the Sheehan 13-yard line. But on a fourth down and two run from the five-yard line, the Titans only gave up one yard to Carter Chambers and the Bears turned the ball over on downs.

On their second possession of the game, Sheehan got a 35-yard pass completion from QB Jake O’Brien to Lucas Gerema to put the ball deep in Granby/Canton territory. A few plays later, O’Brien scored from six yards away. With the extra point, Sheehan led 7-0.

Granby/Canton got to the Sheehan 32 on their next drive before it stalled.

Sheehan took over the marched 76 yards on 13 plays with 11 rushes to take a 13-0 lead on a two-yard run from Joshua Durant with 1:37 left in the second quarter. The two pass completions on the drive both went for 17 yards.

“We had to grind this one out,” Ferrazzi said. “It wasn’t our prettiest effort. Our kids fight and our kids continue to show displays of toughness. They never faltered. Never got nervous. They stayed the course and finished out the game. And now, we’re moving on.”

Granby/Canton got to the Sheehan 37-yard line on their first drive of the second half before faltering.

On their first drive of the second half, the Titans marched 76 yards on 17 plays with Durant, who ran for a game-high 113 yards on 26 carries, scored his second touchdown of the game with 9:52 remaining in the fourth quarter. The extra point from Evan Keating made it 20-0.

Granby/Canton got on the scoreboard with their next drive, aided by a 15-yard pass interference penalty against the Titans.

Facing a fourth down and seven situation on the Sheehan 34, Forte found Kendall Thomas, who bobbled the ball, pulled it in and gained 14 yards to Titan 20-yard line to keep the drive alive. Thomas had a 27-yard reception earlier on the drive.

Chambers, who scored nine touchdowns in the past three games, scored from the eight-yard line to cut the lead to 20-6 with 4:32 remaining. The extra point try was wide.

“They watch a lot of film,” Forte said of Sheehan. “They knew what we came here to do.”

“It didn’t go our way but we went for it,” Granby/Canton receiver Kendall Thomas said. “It’s a tough team and we kept fighting (throughout the game). We all fight.”

It was the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.

2024 CIAC tournament scores and semifinal pairings

Ben Vrabel (9) keeps the ball out of the hands of Sheehan’s Jayden Dougherty in Tuesday night’s Class MM quarterfinal.

Sheehan 20, Granby/Canton 6
At Wallingford
Granby/Canton (8-3)       0    0  0  6  — 6
Sheehan (9-2)                      0  13  0  7  — 20
Second quarter
S: Jake O’Brien 6 run (Evan Keating kick), 11:54
S: Joshua Durant 2 run (kick failed), 1:37
Fourth quarter
S: Durant 1 run (Keating kick), 9:52
G: Carter Chambers 8 run (kick fails), 8:01
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Granby/Canton – Vinny Forte 15-78, Carter Chambers 10-25, Jayce Tucker 1-0, Hayes Horst 3-12; Sheehan – Joshua Durant 26-113, Jake O’Brien 26-88, Jack Grant 10-74, Tucker Larson 1-8
PASSING: Granby/Canton – Vinny Forte 12-24-1, 137; Sheehan – Jake O’Brien 9-14-0, 104
RECEIVING: Granby/Canton – Ryan Cuniowski 3-43, Jayce Tucker 1-9, Hayes Horst 1-5, Kendall Thomas 4-58, Ben Vrabel 2-10, Carter Chambers 1-12; Sheehan– Lucas Gerema 1-35, Mason Baehr 1-17, Joshua Durant 1-17, Jayden Dougherty 4-20, Tucker Larson 2-15


CLASS SS
Quarterfinals
Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m.
Killingly 75, Ellington 14
Windham 17, Ledyard 14
Sheehan 20, Granby/Canton 6
Waterford 21, Bullard Havens 12
Semifinals
Sunday, Dec. 8
Waterford at Killingly, 12:30 p.m.
Sheehan at Windham, 12:30 p.m.
Championship
Friday, Dec. 14 and Saturday, Dec. 14
Time TBA at Arute Field (CCSU) or Rentschler Field in East Hartford
Seedings: 1. Killingly (9-0), 2. Windham (9-1), 3. Sheehan-Wallingford (8-2), 4. Bullard-Havens (7-3), 5. Waterford (8-2), 6. Granby/Canton (8-2), 7. Ledyard (6-4), 8. Ellington (6-4)

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

More in Football