Southington came from behind to beat Hall 36-30 in West Hartford on Saturday afternoon.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Jacoby Roman connected with Ben Beaulieu on a fourth down screen pass, and the running back raced 25 yards to the end zone with :53 to play to give Southington a come-from-behind 36-30 win over Hall football Saturday afternoon in West Hartford.

It was just the second lead in the game for the visiting Blue Knights who played most of the game without starting quarterback Luke Prozzo and starting running back Nick Andrews, both of whom were lost to injuries in the first half.

“We need to finish,” said Hall head coach Steve Markie, who saw his team drop to 2-2 on the year. “We talked about that at the half, and we are getting closer to doing it.”

Prozzo’s arm and Andrews’ legs carried Southington downfield on a game opening drive. But Hall’s CJ Nunez sacked Prozzo on fourth down to end the drive and give his team their first possession. The Titans faked a punt on their first possession with quarterback/punter Tommy Hussey keeping the ball. He came up short of the first down, but a defensive face mask penalty kept the drive alive. A Southington sack on third down forced Hall to punt the ball away.

Andrews would be injured on the first play of the next drive when he was stuffed in the backfield by Nunez. Bobby Biondi would later deflect a third down pass from Roman and once again Southington was forced to punt.

This time Hussey and company put together a scoring drive that began at their own 42. A third down pass to Quinn O’Neill gave Hall a fresh set of downs before Hussey would rush to the 29 for another first down. On first down, the senior quarterback would find Isaiah Gaston in the left side of the end zone and Hall was on the board, 7-0, with 2:46 to play.

Southington would open the second quarter with the ball at the Hall 2 where Roman would punch it in from. Ethan Esterson intercepted the 2-point conversion pass attempt to keep the score at 7-6 Hall. After the two teams exchanged punts, Hall saw a big run by Hussey negated on a penalty and on the next play Southington came up with an interception at midfield. But the Hall defense made a stand with a big stop on a Beaulieu run on fourth-and-2 to end that drive.

Hall had two critical mistakes that crippled the next drive. The first was an offensive pass interference call on a long completion down the sideline. The second came when Hussey tried to fake the punt, but he was stopped short of the marker and Southington found itself sitting pretty at the 33. The Blue Knights took advantage when Roman connected on a 22-yard score with Rosco Cook with just :17 to play in the first half to take the 13-7 lead. “The penalties really hurt us today,” Markie said after the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Spencer Bocher-Zazzaro fielded the ball inside his own 20. Running from the right side, he cut to the middle of the field and following his blockers, managed to find open running room down the left side and outraced everyone to the end zone to give his team an unlikely score and a lead of 14-13 with :03 left on the clock.

“Spencer has now returned two for touchdowns for us and our kick returns have been phenomenal,” said Markie.

Following a much-needed intermission to allow both teams to get some fluids on an 80-degree day, Hall received the kick. Hussey, Jaden Ortiz, and Ben Carlson were the workhorses on the ground in a drive that was capped off with a 45-yard TD pass on fourth down from Hussey to Jordan Scher with 9:05 go in the third.

After forcing Southington to punt on its possession, Hall saw its drive finish with a 32-yard field goal by Noah Kabakoff that made it 24-13.

The visitors would answer with a long drive that ended as time ran out in the third when Roman ran in over the right side for a touchdown. This time the 2-point conversion was successful and the game went to the final quarter with the Titans clinging to the 3-point lead.

In the fourth, Hall opened with a drive that ended in a punt. Then Southington produced one of the game’s strangest plays.

Roman dropped back to pass and looked to be sacked, but the whistle never blew as his knee did not touch the turf. Many of Hall’s defenders thought the play was over but, Roman popped up, scrambled left, and fired a long pass to a wide-open receiver who went in for what would have been a 70-yard TD. The officials ruled, however, that Roman was past the line of scrimmage when he launched the ball, so the points came off the board. On the next play the ball was knocked loose on a big hit and Hall recovered the fumble.

The Southington sideline was irate, believing that their ballcarrier had been hit in the head on the play. They ended up not only losing possession on the turnover, but adding another 15 yards for Hall who now started their drive at the Southington 27.

Hussey – who faced a lot of pressure on the day and took some big hits – would find Quinn O’Neill on a pass over the middle and the senior muscled his way into the end zone, but Hall’s PAT attempt went wide and it was a 9-point game at 30-21 with just under 6 minutes remaining.

The next Blue Knight’s drive was aided by s a personal foul call on Hall that moved the ball to the 30. Roman would make Hall pay when he hit Jaxiel Rivera for the touchdown and it was now a 2-point game with 4:42 remaining.

On the kickoff, the low line drive hit a Hall player in the leg and deflected out of bounds back at the Hall 6-yard line to give them terrible field position on a possession where they could have run the clock out. The Southington defense stiffened and on third down and less than 1, Hussey was caught from behind by Ahmed Mamoon on a run option play that the QB decided to keep.

Now facing a fourth-and-6, Hall set up to punt the ball away, but Southington was called for encroachment before the play started and the Titans now had a fourth-and-1 with 3:10 to go inside their own 15. Markie decided to punt the ball away and rely on his defense.

Roman – who had often had a lot of time in the pocket – managed to move the ball, despite a pair of sacks from Hall. The last one came with under a minute to play when Declan Mitchell led a gaggle of teammates in stopping the quarterback. With :53 to play and facing a fourth-and-14 at the Hall 25, the Knights took a timeout. Out of the huddle Roman threw a screen to the right side that Beaulieu caught. He followed a convoy of blockers and made a cut to the sideline and ran in untouched, to give Southington its second lead of the game at 36-30.

With less than a minute to go, Hall relied on a series of quick passes to gain ground and first downs and also stop the clock. With :04 to go the Titans faced a first-and-10 at the Southington 30-yard line. Hussey had good protection this time and lofted a pass toward the end zone. Gaston was double-covered and Southington’s Rivera came back on the ball and managed to bat it away to seal the victory.

Markie has said all year that he needs his players to play a complete game from the opening kick to the final whistle. “We are closer (to doing that ) than we were in week one, but that (Southington) is a really good, tough team that will most likely be in the post-season. We have got to find ways to beat teams like that if we want to get to the playoffs.”

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