NORWALK

By JOHN NASH

Hour Staff Writer


They opened their Homecoming festivities with a 89-yard kick off return for a touchdown.

They capped the evening off with a perfectly executed 17-yard scoring pass.

In between, the young Brien McMahon football team rode an up-and-down rollercoaster of a game that only a young squad could enjoy.

Yet when all was said and done, the Junior Senators from Norwalk, if you will, moved to 2-1 on the season with a 22-7 victory over the Stamford Black Knights at Casagrande Field on Friday night.

"This whole season is going to be a growing process for us," said McMahon head coach Joe SantaLucia. "They're going to learn, but we won the game. We showed great intensity and showed great heart. They wanted to win and it showed. It's a good showing for them."

The Black Knights actually dominated the first half, piling up 260 total yards, complete two 100-yard rushers, over the first 24 minutes.

All they had to show for it, however, was a 7-6 lead.

The Knights then opened the second half and marched 32 yards straight down the field -- in the wrong direction. Two sacks, two penalties and a bad snap on a fourth-and-30 punt attempt turned even worse when McMahon's Ryan Eaton tackled the Black Knights punter in the end zone for a safety, giving the Senators an 8-7 lead.

"Mistakes are tough and we've done that to ourselves a number of times over the last few years," SantaLucia said. "They had a couple of mistakes that hurt them and it's tough to come back from mistakes."

McMahon made Stamford pay even more on its ensuing drive, taking the ball 46 yards in six plays and scoring when sophomore quarterback Damien "Sanchez" Vega connected with Chris Jerome for a 19-yard scoring pass with six minutes to go in the third quarter.

AJ Taccone's PAT kick made it 15-7, McMahon.

McMahon's defense, meanwhile, stiffened big time against the Black Knights ground game, daring Stamford to throw the ball.

McMahon limited Stamford to only 84 yards in the second half, 49 of which came on their final three plays of the game.

"They put nine guys in the box on us after we had run the ball really well in the first half," Stamford head coach Kevin Jones said.

McMahon closed out the scoring in the closing seconds when Vega (5-for-16, 89 yards, 2 TDs) connected with Clement Abonyi on a 17-yard pass to make it 22-7.

It was Abonyi who ignited the raucous Homecoming crowd with an 89-yard kick off return for a touchdown on the opening play. A botched PAT left the score 6-0, Senators, just 17 seconds into the game.

Still, Stamford had plenty of chances to get on board, moving the ball early and often in the first half.

The Black Knights, however, self-destructed at times via turnovers.

McMahon's Terron Edwards picked off a tipped Jalen Holmes pass to end Stamford's first drive at the McMahon-12 and Chris Holomakoff recovered a Holmes fumble in Senators territory to end the Knights second drive, as well.

"We left the ball down in the red zone a few times and that hurt us," said Jones. "We could have scored 21 or 28 points in the first half and we didn't. We scored seven."

Those seven came when Stamford took the ball and marched 92 yards down field to the McMahon 2-yard line.

A Holmes-to-Mark Robinson safety valve pass ate up 23 of those yards and Mark Sewards (162 yards on 23 carries) chewed up 50 yards more on one carry.

Finally, Patrick Atkinson burst in from two yards out, giving Stamford a 7-6 lead.

Darrell Decausey added 106 yards on 10 carries for the 0-3 Black Knights, but once McMahon looked to stop the run Holmes couldn't connect with his receivers to loosen things up, going 2-for-13 for 51 yards with two picks.

GAME NOTES -- McMahon, which only had 80 yards of offense in the first half, finished with 187 for the game ... Leading rusher Jerome had 39 yards on 11 carries ... McMahon will look to move to 3-1 next week hosting Bassick