The physical nature of the Montville-St. Bernard pre-Thanksgiving football game borders on ferocious and fierce, even extending a bit into unnecessary roughness.
Last year, a late St. Bernard tackle knocked Montville quarterback J.P. Morales out of the game. Both teams have earned their share of penalties mixed in with clean and devastating hits, symbolic of your typical cross-town rivalry.
As St. Bernard grad Christian Mulcahy, the MVP of the last two rivalry contests, so aptly put it, “There are a bunch of guys full of testosterone banging heads, so something is bound to happen.”
The football teams at Montville and St. Bernard won’t share a Thanksgiving meal together. The way the public school and Catholic school on the hills of Uncasville go at each other, you’d think this rivalry was steeped with decades of tradition and bad blood.
But that’s not the case. When St. Bernard plays host to Montville Nov. 26 at Dellaporta Field at 6:30 (WXLM, 104.7 FM) it will mark just the 10th pre-Thanksgiving game in the series. The in-town schools can’t even agree on a set date for the game. If Montville is home, the game is played on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because its school system is closed Wednesday. St. Bernard has a half day of school Wednesday and hosts the game Thanksgiving Eve.
“It’s a unique rivalry in the respect that these are two schools from the same town that didn’t play each other until recently,” said Mike McLaughlin, WXLM sportscaster, St. Bernard alum, and current Montville High employee. “St. Bernard always played NFA on Thanksgiving, and Montville played Ledyard the Saturday before Thanksgiving. When the ECC expanded in 1999, Fitch dropped New London on Thanksgiving and started playing Ledyard. NFA played New London, and that left Montville and St. Bernard to find each other.”
McLaughlin, considered one of the informational gurus on southeastern Connecticut football history, conceived the Mayor’s Cup trophy to go to the St. Bernard-Montville winner. St. Bernard has won the trophy in the last two years, clinching the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small title in 2006 and springing a slight upset last year in a 28-26 win, costing Montville an 8-2 season.
“The rivalry is a new thing for us,” Montville coach Tanner Grove said, “but it’s exciting and fun to have two schools in the same town playing for a divisional title. I hope we can have a great game and a great atmosphere.”
St. Bernard can retire the present trophy if it wins for a third straight season. But Grove and the Indians have much more than a Cup at stake in this matchup. Montville (9-1) can clinch a CIAC Class SS state playoff berth with a victory and claim its first ECC Small title in some time. In addition to spoiling Montville’s post-season plans, St. Bernard (6-3 overall at press time with a game Nov. 21) can force a tie with Montville for the ECC Small championship. Montville is 5-0, while St. Bernard is 4-1 in the division.
“The stakes have never been higher for this game,” McLaughlin said. “Any team can win, especially if Ryan Brahm plays for St. Bernard. It’s the only game in the ECC that night, so the crowd should be huge.”
The Saints, who also have a few players from Norwich Tech in a co-op team format, rolled through the first half of the season with a 5-1 record. They lost only a competitive 34-12 game to New London and pounded Fitch and Stonington in impressive fashion.
St. Bernard is led by Brahm, a 5-foot-7 senior quarterback who has thrown for 11 touchdown passes, running back Jordan Rando (896 yards), and a physical set of interior lines. An influx of four East Lyme transfers: lineman Lucas Bowman and receivers Orie Plasse, Sean Kydd, and Rando, have joined Brahm, an East Lyme resident, to beef up the Saints’ roster this year.
Brahm, however, sprained a thumb in a last-minute 14-7 loss to Ledyard Nov. 1 and missed the Saints’ upset loss to Killingly. He’s expected back for the last home game of a fine career.
Montville’s only loss came at the hands of New London, 27-26. Anyone remotely associated with local sports knows what happened. The Whalers scored on the last play of the game on a “Hail Mary” 72-yard pass that was deflected off a Montville defender. Montville believes it should be undefeated, but a win over St. Bernard would cure any wounds, send the Indians into the playoffs, and perhaps set up a rematch with New London in the state semifinals Dec. 2.
“We are not thinking about anyone or anything except St. Bernard right now,” Grove said. “We will let the dust settle after Thanksgiving, and if we are in, great. We will prepare for any opponent.”
Montville has been impressive with its nucleus of underclassmen, led by superlative sophomore running back Tyler Girard-Floyd. The 6-foot, 250-pounder is enjoying a historic season with 1,790 yards rushing, 28 touchdowns, and 176 points after 10 games. Few players of any class have posted numbers to match Girard-Floyd. Former Montville great Jeremy Terni held what is believed to be the ECC record of 200 single-season points in 1999 as a senior.
“One of the things I’m most proud of him for is that he plays with such poise when he makes plays on both sides of the ball,” Grove said. “What more can you say about him, other than he’s a special young man.”
McLaughlin, who has followed local high school football since the 1950s, does not recall any sophomore who has made Tyler-Girard’s impact.
“It is a joy to watch him play football,” McLaughlin said. “He is a gifted player with a huge body and speed, but what sets him apart in my eyes is that he has so much fun playing football. I’m always excited about calling games on the radio, but he has re-energized me.” Underclassmen dominate Montville’s offensive skill positions. Morales, a junior, has played well at quarterback, keeping defenses honest with passes to juniors Jesse Sutherland and Shawn Clang. Sophomore Skyler McNair is effective spelling Girard-Floyd at tailback.
Defensively, junior linebacker Ricky Fort, Sutherland and McNair, safeties, and senior defensive end Nick Sabilia have been season-long stalwarts. Girard-Floyd is also a sack leader when he plays defensive line.
Though Montville’s defense was thought to be a question mark this season, it produced a huge effort in the 27-26 loss to New London. Two Montville turnovers gave New London two short TD drives. If you add the last-play pass on the “once-in-a-lifetime play,” New London only managed one long scoring drive and was held to less than 200 yards of offense.
The Indians followed that effort with a 35-13 win over East Lyme, allowing just one offensive touchdown.
“I am very proud of the entire defensive unit,” Grove said. “We played sound against a great offense [New London]. We gave them a short field for two of their scores, and the other on the last play you already know about. Ricky Fort put on one of the best performances any linebacker in this area has had all season. I am extremely proud of every player and coach in this program, we are trying to establish ourself as an elite program in our area, and we think we took a step in that direction [against New London].”
That emotional loss caused numerous Montville players to writhe on the ground in disbelief and dismay. But the Indians look like they’ve put that sudden setback behind them.
“I am doing well as well as the staff and the team is focused, hungry, and all in all agitated,” Grove said. “We have worked hard all week and believe that this loss will just drive us to finish strong this season.”
Grove, who is 21-9 in three years as head coach, believed the Indians would be one of the state’s best teams next season with the possibility of steamrolling and gaining confidence to become a contender this year. Montville is on the cusp of becoming an elite program a year early, hoping to gain its first CIAC playoff berth since a surprise 7-4 team upset Bloomfield and reached the Class M title game in 2002.
So much is on the line for Montville, but St. Bernard would love nothing more than to shatter those post-season dreams and retire the Mayor’s Trophy.
Should be a few heads banging along the way.
By Larry Kelley
Special to the Times