Hall hosted Maloney in football on Friday night in West Hartford, with a fourth-quarter interception deciding the game.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

The Maloney Spartans used a fourth quarter interception to set up a come-from-behind win over Hall football 21-14 Friday night.

On the play, Hall was at the Maloney 7 and driving for the go-ahead score when quarterback Tommy Hussey threw a jump pass that was picked off by Gabriel Kelly, Jr. and returned to the Spartan 35 with just under seven minutes to play in regulation.

“We called a pass play because we thought they wouldn’t expect it,“ said Hall head coach Steve Markie. “But it was not just about one play tonight, it never is.” It would take the visitors only 1:13 and a pair of long passes from quarterback Eli Showerda to Noah Albino – including 39-yards for the score.

Hall had put together perhaps its best half of football on the season in the first two quarters, but as it has in other games this season, could not put together a complete game for the win. It was the Titans defense that set the tone early in the game as a sack by Bobby Binodi and Benjamin Tam combined to sack Showerda, putting the Spartans back on their heels and forcing a punt on the opening drive. With their first possession, Hall moved the ball well with Ben Carlson (five rushes, for 23 yards) starting things off, then Hussey using his arm and then his legs on a third down to move the ball to the Maloney 30. A pair of penalties on the next downs would move the ball back over midfield and force a punt.

Maloney picked up first downs on back-to-back runs from Trayon Harell over the right side, and later another carry for a first down from Devan Bacote to get to the Maloney 47 at the end of a scoreless first.

The drive would stall when Showerda’s pass to Jayden Soto fell incomplete and Hall had the ball on their own 35. The Titans used Hussey’s legs and his arm to move to the Maloney 24 where on third down the QB ran it to the 15, but took a late hit from William Nixon of Maloney to spot the ball at the 7. Two plays later Hussey ran again, this time to the left side and took at big hit, but managed to cross the goal line for the 7-0 lead with 4:19 to play.

Neither team could do much on offense from there until the final minute of the half. Maloney easily moved the ball down the field with a series of short passes leading to a final play as tie was expiring. Showerda launched a pass into the end zone by CJ Nunez (10 tackles in game) was there to knock the ball away for hall.

“Our first half was a very, very good team against a good team,” (Maloney was 4-1 entering the game), said Markie who saw his team leading 7-0 at the break.

Things started off with a bang for Hall on the second half opening kick as Carlson returned it to the Maloney 41 to start things off. The Titans wasted no time as Hussey hit Jordan Scher with a TD pass on the very first play from scrimmage and it was 14-0 Hall just :19 into the half.

Another big stand by the defense saw Maloney turn the ball back to the hosts when Bacote was stopped on a fourth-and-short at the 45.

Then things started to turn against Hall as Maloney’s Rafael Rivera would block Hussey’s punt on the next possession and recover at the Titan 44. It didn’t take long for Harrell to bust out to the left sider and scamper 34 yards to make it 14-7.

“When things don’t go our way – like the blocked punt – it sends us into a spiral,” Markie said.

Hall would drive to the Maloney 24 on the next possession, but things stalled when Noah Kabakoff’s 42-yard field goal attempt fell just short with four minutes to play in the third quarter. The Spartans would run a drive that had them at the Hall 4-yard line. Tam made another big stop on Harrell as he tried to run it in, and on the next play it was Carlson and Daniel Carrero taking Harrell down in the backfield as the quarter ended with Hall clinging to the 7-point lead.

On the first play of the fourth quarter and third play of the drive Bacote took a direct snap and :05 into the period the game would be tied at 14 as he barreled into the end zone. The Titans’ next drive didn’t go far and on fourth-and-8 from their own 34 Hussey dropped back to punt but two Maloney players broke through forcing him to run. He made it over midfield to the Spartan 47 to give his team a fresh set of downs.

The Titans continued working the ball downfield. On first down at the 18, Jaden Ortiz burst through the line and set up Hall at the 7-yard line with a first and goal to go. Following a Maloney timeout, the wheels fell off the Blue Wagon when Hussey faked a handoff, rolled to his right, and then underthrew his receiver for the critical interception.

Wasting no time, the quarterback hit Albino with a pass that gained 28 yards on first down. After an incompletion and a short run, Albino lined up on the left, raced down field, got inside position on his defender at the 20, and Showerda laid in the perfect pass for the go-ahead touchdown with 5:46 to play.

Hall still had time to stage the rally and got some help when Sean Boles of Maloney was called for roughing on the kickoff, and Hall had it at their own 44 with plenty of time remaining. On first down the snap flew over Hussey’s head forcing him to scramble back, recover the ball and then throw it away without taking a penalty.

A dropped square out pass and an overthrown ball made it fourth-and-10 for Hall and they opted to punt. Hussey got off a gem and when it finished rolling it was at Maloney’s 9-yard line. After a pair of first downs, Hall had the Spartans at fourth-and-3 at the Titans 47. Maloney went with a direct snap to Bacote who broke the tackle of Matt LaBreck and followed his blockers down to the 40-yard line for the first down.

With the clock running, Maloney did not need to take another snap and allowed the clock to run to 0 for the 21-14 win.

“We have plenty of opportunities to learn how to finish and win from,” Markie said after the game. That learning curve is steep as the Titans travel to No. 5 Glastonbury on Halloween for their next game.

Hall is back home on Nov. 7 hosting 1-5 Manchester, then away one week later at 4-2 Platt before closing out the season hosting 2-4 Conard. The Red Wolves are without starting quarterback Brady Cersosimo who is done for the year with a shoulder injury. In their first game without the senior signal caller on Thursday night, they fell to 6-0 Windsor by a score of 61-0.

Game notes

• Hussey finished 9 of 21 in passing for 106 yards with one TD and one INT. He entered the game averaging 215 yards passing per game but has only one game this season without throwing at least one interception (vs Simsbury).
• In his last three games he has been picked off five times.
• Hussey led the Titans in rushing with 53 yards on 18 carries, up slightly over his 49 yards per game average. He leads all Titan players with 297 total rushing yards on the season. His touchdown run was his fourth on the season.
• Jayden Ortiz had 28 yards on five carries, and Ben Carlson 23 yards on five carries.
• Jordan Scher was held to 44 yards on five catches (including one TD). Scher came into the Maloney game averaging 68 receiving yards a game.
• Scher now has five receiving touchdowns to lead Hall.
• On the season Hall has 15 passing and six rushing scores.
• Maloney came into the game averaging 26 points per contest.
• Hall’s defense was led by CJ Nunez with 10 tackles, Declan Mitchell with six and Ben Carlson’s five.
• In its four losses this season, Hall has only been outscored by 17 total points, including a 3-point loss at Bristol Central. The widest margin of loss was only 8 points to New Britain.

Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford! Click the blue button below to become a supporter of We-Ha.com and our efforts to continue producing quality journalism.