West Hartford’s Hall High School football team lead at the half, but lost to Platt 28-13 on Thursday night.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Austen Standish of Platt ran, passed, and tackled his way through, above, and around Hall as the Panthers beat the Titans 28-13 in the season opening football game for both teams.

Standish – a senior quarterback who threw for 1,713 yards and 18 touchdowns last year and ran for 10 more – looked to be in mid-season form already. But it was Hall that would get on the ball first when senior QB Noah Kabakoff engineered a drive deep into Platt territory that ended when he kicked a 25-yard-field at 8:07.

When Standish and the Panthers got the ball they went to work on the ground and in the air. Edwin Vidal carried a lot of the load on the ground and Standish ended the drive with a 14-yard draw, going untouched into the end zone for the first of his touchdowns in the game.

One bright spot for Hall was in its return game, especially with Spencer Boucher-Zazzaro and Ben Carlson ripping off huge chunks of yardage each time they touched the ball. Carlson took the kick following the visitor’s TD, raced to the outside, and looked to be on his way to paydirt, but the last man in line for Platt managed to get just enough of him to force him out of bounds at the Platt 45. Two plays later it was Kabakoff launching a pinpoint 43-yard bomb to Jordan Scher who stretched all-out to haul it in in the end zone and give Hall a 10-7 lead just under 8 minutes in.

James Jones would turn in a sack on Standish on a third-and-9 to end the first quarter with Hall up by three and slow the drive.

On Hall’s next drive they would turn the ball over on a fumble deep in Platt territory. The Panthers would mount a strong drive but Lincoln Ruel stopped Vidal inside the 5, then on fourth down it was Ruel again with the defensive play, this time breaking up a pass in the end-zone to end the drive. Kabakoff led a promising drive using Jordan Scher, Boucher-Zazzaro, and Joshua Almodovar to move the ball into Platt territory. But incomplete passes on second and third down led to a Titans punt. The defense held for Hall forcing a punt and Kabakoff put together a late drive ending in a field goal with :06 to go to give Hall the 13-7 lead at the half.

Platt received the second half kick after deferring at the coin toss, and the adjustments they made at the break paid off and put the game away. It started again with Standish and company consistently beating Hall’s right-side defense for big chunks on the ground. Standish ended it with a 28-yard scoring pass to Maurice Christie just 2:30 into the half to make it 14-13. Another big kick return by Boucher-Zazzaro set Hall up in good field position but Standish intercepted a Kabakoff pass at his own 38 to get the ball back.

Platt then moved Ignacio Vasquez into quarterback and turned Standish lose as a running back and a wide receiver for several plays before Standish went back as the signal caller. He would cap the drive by calling his own number and taking the sweep at the right side of the Hall defense into the end zone for the 20-13 lead. After Hall went three-and-out, it was Standish leading another drive and once again for the score at 1:51, as well as running in the 2-point conversion to make it 28-13.

The offensive success that Hall had found in the first half seemed to disappear for large parts of the second half. Kabakoff’s passes were short or high on several plays, and receivers dropped a few more to keep the Titans from putting together scoring drives. Kabakoff was also forced out of the pocket on several plays as Hall didn’t have a running game to speak of and needed to get the ball downfield quickly to cut into the deficit.

“We had an outbreak of hoof and mouth and that reduced our practice numbers way down,” said head coach Steve Markie. “We had to change our game plan and stay basic, but that is no excuse. That is a good team over there.”

Hall did have two final chances to score in the fourth, but one pass into the end zone on fourth down was just out of the reach of Boucher-Zazzaro, and as the clock chased zeros a final drive ended on downs. “I don’t know what happened in the second half after we moved the ball well in the first half,” Markie said. “They made some adjustments at the half.”

Despite the setback in the opener, Markie knows that he has a lot of tools to work with on the field to turn things around. That includes six returning starters on offense that are leaders. “We have playmakers. We just have to get the ball to them in space,” said the third-year head coach.

Before ever looking at films from the Platt loss, Markie knew one thing his team has to work on heading into a meeting with Shelton. “Tackling. We had a lot of opportunities to end drives and did not. We tackled poorly and they made us pay for it,” Markie said.

 Game notes

• The game was played at Conard High School’s McKee Stadium with Hall being the home team. The track at Chalmers Stadium at Hall is being rebuilt, so the entire area is blocked off.
• Several Hall teams will be playing early-season home games at Conard and at Kingswood-Oxford.
• The combination of Kabakoff and Scher showed a lot of promise and when Hall gets its running game back will give the team a big threat combination.
• Kabakoff is not only the starting quarterback for Hall he also handles the field goals, extra points, and punts for Markie.

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