By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

ANSONIA — The Ansonia football team remains undefeated in WOAC play with a 28-14 win over Arcanum at home on September 13.

Ansonia head coach Adam Hall said against a tough team in Arcanum, his players rose to the occasion and played with a lot of intensity for four quarters.

“Arcanum is a tough football team. They’re very physical, they’re big up front, their backs run hard. We knew coming that it was going to be a tough game,” Hall said. “Our guys did a good job of stepping up to the challenge. I thought we played our best game effort wise tonight.”

Arcanum battled all game long and got to within a score in the fourth quarter, but a mistake by the team gave Ansonia all they needed to grow their lead. Arcanum head coach Matt Macy said his defense did a great job keeping them in the game, but they were up against the clock.

“We just can’t help ourselves. We get within a touchdown and we snap the ball out of the back of the endzone. That was the end of it,” Macy said. “They controlled the ball the rest of the game. We did a good job defensively to get some stops, but it took us too long to stop them. They’re, as always, a well oiled machine.”

Ansonia scored on their first possession of the game. Senior Zane Henderson broke off a big run that got them into the redzone. He finished off the drive with a five-yard touchdown run to go up 8-0.

Arcanum responded right away as senior Luke Midlam took the kickoff and ran it back for a touchdown. After the failed two-point conversion, the Trojans were only down 8-6.

Ansonia responded in the final seconds of the first quarter as Henderson scored from three yards out to go up 16-6.

Hall said the team did what they were supposed to do and ran the ball well. They were able to drive down the field and at a minimum, shorten the game for them.

Ansonia had a chance to extend their lead down at the eight-yard line. The Tigers were looking to run in for another touchdown before they fumbled and Arcanum recovered.

Ansonia went into halftime with only a 16-6 lead.

The Tigers came out in the second half and went on a scoring drive. Henderson scored his third rushing touchdown, this time from two yards out, to go up 22-6 with 4:37 left in the third quarter.

Once Arcanum got the ball for their first possession in the second half, they switched quarterbacks. Sophomore Bishop Cartwright started the game and they brought in sophomore Lucas Miller in from wide receiver to get snaps at quarterback.

Macy said he wanted to do something to spark the offense and Miller was more of a running quarterback who could make some plays with his feet.

“Bishop does a great job. But, Lucas is more of a running back. We were trying to see if we couldn’t run him a little bit and get a spark,” Macy said.

They did get a spark as sophomore MJ Macy scored on their first play of the second half. Macy scored on a 60-yard touchdown run. After a successful two-point conversion, the Trojans were only down 22-14.

The Ansonia couldn’t score for the rest of the second half. They were able to pick up some first downs, but couldn’t get a scoring drive together. While they couldn’t put points up on the board, they did make it harder for Arcanum to get back into the game.

“We held the ball a lot in the second half especially. But, if we score all the times we get down there then we can put this game away a little bit earlier. We can all breathe a little easier,” Hall said. “But, we did what we were supposed to. We held onto the ball and made them drive the field.”

The Arcanum defensive line stepped up to corral the Ansonia rushing attack. They forced some negative plays as they got into the back field. Senior Truman Knaus didn’t let anything go outside of him from his defensive end spot.

The unit did all they could against a tough Ansonia offensive line. They couldn’t stop them in a timely manner.

“Truman is a handful. I don’t know who’s going to block him. He did a great job. We had to put all of our defensive linemen to try and slow them down. They’re just so good at what they do. Credit to them and their program,” Macy said.

Ansonia ended the third quarter getting a tackle for loss and forcing Arcanum to punt near their own endzone. On the first snap of the fourth quarter, Arcanum couldn’t get the snap down on the punt and the ball bounced into the endzone.

Henderson recovered the ball in the endzone for the Ansonia touchdown. Like that, the Tigers led 28-14.

Cartwright moved back to quarterback for the fourth quarter drives for Arcanum. They were able to make some throws and move the ball, but couldn’t get a scoring drive together.

Hall said the defense did their job and made great plays to keep the Trojans off the scoreboard. Outside of two plays, the Tigers didn’t allow the Trojans to do much offensively.

Ansonia got the fourth down stop in the final minute and kneel out the clock for the win.

Macy said this team is much improved, but are still young and still have room for growth. They need to starting making some more plays to win games like these.

Hall said he is happy for his guys to get this win and was proud of the effort. But, there are mistakes they have to clean up if they want to come away with wins against the other teams in the WOAC.

“Playing against good teams, like Arcanum, that gave us trouble. If we play like that against Tri-Village, Preble Shawnee and some of the other teams in the conference it’s not going to work out for us. We got to fix those issues. But, we saw a lot of good things tonight,” Hall said.

Ansonia is 3-1 on the season with a 3-0 WOAC record. They will have another big game ahead as they head to Tri-Village on September 19 for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

Arcanum is now 2-2 with a 2-1 WOAC record. They will host Tri-County North on September 20 at 7 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].