TRUMBULL — Week three could be too early to tag a game as a must-win, but when Notre Dame-West Haven and St. Joseph met Saturday in a Connecticut High School Football Alliance matchup there was as much desperation in the air as there was rain falling from the sky.
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With difficult schedules ahead, any CIAC playoff aspirations either team had hinged on winning this game.
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On a rainy afternoon where offense was hard to come by, St. Joseph came out on top 13-0.
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For St. Joseph coach Joe DellaVecchia a win is a win at this point, no matter how it happens.
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“We need anything we can get,” DellaVecchia said. “We blew the first game of the year and put ourselves in a hole. Every week is going to be like this I think.”
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The game was a back-and-forth of punts with nether team reaching the red zone until St. Joseph’s final possession where they took over on a turnover on downs inside the 10-yard line.
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The game’s first score came via the Cadets defense when Austin Leifer picked off a pass at the 12-yard line and returned it for a touchdown with 3:38 to play in the third quarter.
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“Somebody had to make a play, somebody had to catch a football,” DellaVecchia said. “I knew if we caught it and scored, that would be the game. One score was going to win it the way it was going for both teams.”
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Notre Dame went for it on fourth and long from inside its own 10 with under two minutes to play but did not get it.
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Three plays later, St Joseph running back Jesse Covino dove in for the game’s only offensive touchdown.
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Notre Dame had trouble all game moving the ball, in part due to St. Joseph’s ability to stop the run.
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“They did a really good job on our run game. We thought we’d be able to push them around a little bit more,” Notre Dame-West Haven coach Joe DeCaprio said. “They had eight guys in the box at times. We have a sophomore at quarterback who is going to be outstanding. When he threw good balls we dropped them and he had a couple of poor reads. On the interception he got hit and that’s not his fault.”
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NDWH is now 1-2 and will have a hard time qualifying for the CIAC Class LL playoffs with a challenging schedule remaining.
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NDWH travels to North Haven next week and hosts Shelton the week after that. Later in the season games with West Haven, Cheshire, Fairfield Prep and Hamden loom.
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St. Joseph is in a better spot at 2-1 and playing in Class M, but still has a difficult road ahead.
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The Cadets will play next week at a Stamford team which took No. 1 Greenwich to the wire, then hosts a key matchup at home October 7 against New Canaan. Upcoming games follow against Ridgefield, Greenwich, Staples, Danbury and Trumbull.
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Player of the Game
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Austin Leifer, St. Joseph: Leifer’s first pick-six of his career was all the points St. Joseph would need.
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Quotable
“It was third and long and I knew they would be passing, I took my normal drop, the quarterback was under pressure and kind of threw it right at me, I caught it and all I could see was green.” - Leifer.
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