BY ROGER CLEAVELAND
WATERBURY [–] The Sacred Heart/Kaynor Tech football team went into Friday’s game against Watertown hoping for a routine victory, but instead the Hearts got a little more than just a 28-14 win. They also gained some much needed mental toughness.
After letting a 14-0 halftime lead slip away from them in the third quarter, the Hearts (3-2) bounced back with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns and one huge interception to pull away from the Indians.
“That is partially true, the fact that we were able to show poise, maintain our confidence and dig deep when we needed to, but the truth is that we put ourselves in a bad situations with some poor performances,” Hearts coach Phil Dawson said. “We had to sort of figure out for the first time how to adjust to that internally live, respond on the field and then come back and make plays. We were able to do that, and that is unusual for us.”
The glass seems completely full when the dynamic combination of quarterback Trey Dawson and receiver Tyler Rudolph gets into a rhythm, especially since they have other playmakers like Courie Stevenson and Joel Guzman chipping in with big plays.
Dawson completed 20 of 28 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns without and interception. Rudolph caught eight passes for 148 yards, including touchdown passes of 36 and 25 yards, the second of which broke a 14-14 tie with 9:08 to play in the game.
The touchdown was big, because Watertown had grabbed momentum with two touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half. The first came on a Anthony Jenkins 1-yard run to complete a 59-yard drive, most of which was gained on a 32-yard run by Jay Arline (167 yards, 29 carries). The touchdown was on another 32-yard run by Arline.
“I know sometimes our team can get down when we get big plays put on us like that, but I knew we were going to keep our heads,” Trey Dawson said. “That hurt us last week, because we didn’t keep our heads up after (Seymour) made big plays. I knew after practice this past week we focused on that, and tonight keeping our heads up is what kept us in the game.”
Rudolph made one big play after another, finishing with five receptions of 24 yards or more.
His biggest play in the game, however, may have been his interception of Nick D’Elia after Watertown had driven to the Hearts’ 30-yard line while trailing 21-14.
“Without that, we would have probably still been in the game, but we wouldn’t have had that momentum to punch it in,” Trey Dawson said. “I feel like it was just like such a big change that if we didn’t have it, it would have been a very different game.”
After that interception, Dawson drove the Hearts quickly downfield for the game’s last touchdown, a 27-yard run by running back Joel Guzman on a direct snap.
Prior to the Guzman run, which Dawson had audibilized to at the line of scrimmage, the quarterback threw back-to-back completions to Courie Stevenson of 19 and 33 yards.
While the Hearts ran the ball only six times in the game, two of the their four toucdowns came on the ground. Tiron Ferris opened the game’s scoring for the Hearts with a 1-yard touchdown run. On that first scoring drive, Guzman had runs of nine and 10 yards and Rudolph had a catch of 24 yards.
The final touchdown was a brilliant call and a tremendous run by Guzman, who took the direct snap from the center and made two nice cuts to his left then walked into the end zone untouched..
“We pass to set up the run,” Phil Dawson said. “They were doing some things iwth their defensive front that kind of limited our opportunities. When it was there, we saw it and adjusted. Trey saw it. Actually the play was an audible. That was just a great call.”