By Mike Lewis
Coming off their bye week, the Cheshire Rams football team knew what was ahead of them. Yes, standing at 4-1 and in playoff position was a good feeling. However, more brutal games against SCC Tier 1 foes awaited them, the first of which being the 4-1 Jesuits of Fairfield Prep.
It was a defensive battle Friday night, but Cheshire pulled away with a 10-0 shutout over the Jesuits. The Rams defense didn’t give Fairfield Prep much, holding it to 0-4 on fourth down, as well as forcing two fumbles and one interception. Add that to the fact they gave up no points to one of the better teams in Class LL, and you have yourself one heck of a performance.
“They kept us in it,” said Cheshire junior quarterback Jack Raba about his team’s defense. Raba made his return to the field after missing the Xavier game due to injury. “They’re great, you can’t praise them enough. Anytime you get a shutout in this conference, it’s something special.”
[This post contains video, click to play]
However, it wasn’t just defense. A total of four field goals were attempted on the night between the two teams, chances to get their squad on the board. However, three of the four were missed or blocked, the only one good by Ethan Bronson with two minutes to go in the game. Fairfield Prep also had to deal with the absence of its starting quarterback, Patrick Conte, for the second straight game. Though this ended up benefiting the Rams, the carousel of potential injuries had Cheshire head coach Don Drust with the challenge of how to prepare his guys.
“Coming out of the bye week, we knew that they had some guys banged up. We didn’t know who was going to play. You’re preparing for everything,” said Drust, whose team is now 5-1 on the year.
Raba threw one touchdown pass to Mike Millea, accounting for the game’s only TD.. When asked about his own performance, he credited his teammates for making it happen.
“Everyone around me helped me make plays tonight. The receivers did a great job getting open and catching the ball, Elijah (Allston) did a great job stepping in and starting at running back, and the big guys up front did a great job giving me enough time to throw,” said Raba, who has eight touchdowns on the year.
The road for the Rams doesn’t get any easier from here. Next week they travel down to Finn Stadium in Shelton to take on the Gaels, a team that narrowly defeated North Haven, 35-34, at Mike Vanacore Field this week. Then, it’s back home to host Notre Dame-West Haven. After that, rival Daniel Hand comes to Cheshire to wrap up the SCC schedule.
“Everybody knows there is no hiding what the SCC Division 1 is. Every week is huge,” said Drust.