The Derby Red Raiders came within a point of upsetting their undefeated Valley rivals in a game that wasn’t decided until the last two minutes Friday.
Powered by a Montrell Dobbs touchdown and two-point conversation, the 7 – 0 Ansonia Chargers managed to eek out a 33 – 32 win over the 3 – 4 Red Raiders, who entered the match on a three-game winning streak.
“They’re cross-town rivals. We wanted to kill ‘em but, it doesn’t always happen the way you want,” Dobbs said. “We just came out and played our game, and we were determined to win.”
Dobbs carried the ball 49 times and scored three touchdowns at Jarvis Stadium.
Derby had the final possession after Dobbs’ heroics, but couldn’t capitalize on the drive. QB Ray Kreiger was rushed out of the pocket and threw a wild pass as time expired. The ball was intercepted by Arkeel Newsome, who was tackled at midfield.
Ansonia head coach Thomas Brockett was happy the Chargers didn’t give up.
“That’s an unbelievable effort,” Brockett said. “We worked real hard to put ourselves in that position.”
Derby’s coach George French was equally impressed with his surging team.
“We’ve improved every week. We’ve done a lot better [than earlier in the season]. It just didn’t turn out the way it should have,” French said. “It hurts. The kids fought hard, they kept going until the game was over. It just didn’t work out in our favor in the end.”
Derby Dominates
Derby dominated the first half, taking a 26 – 13 lead into halftime.
The Red Raiders opened the scoring when Kreiger threw a 61-yard pass to Brian Dobek to the Ansonia two-yard line. The play set up a one-yard run by Rashawn Hendricks, one of the running back’s two on the day. The extra point was no good.
With 2:58 left in the first quarter, Dobbs received a pitch from Chargers quarterback Elliot Chudwick, and connected with Jake LaRovera for a 29-yard touchdown to make the score 7 – 6.
Ansonia would not lead again until their final drive.
On the ensuing kickoff, Hendricks had a 76-yard return for a touchdown. The conversion was no good, and Derby led 12 – 7.
Kreiger threw his second of four touchdowns in the game, when he connected with Zach Salazar for a five-yard touchdown on a slant pattern with one second left in the first quarter. Derby silenced the Chargers crowd when they successfully performed the same play to get the two-point conversion, to make the score 20 – 7.
Ansonia answered back with 7:56 left in the first half. Chudwick again hit LaRovera, this time for a 12-yard touchdown. The extra point was blocked.
Kreiger and Jacob Tomczak hooked up again, this time for an 80-yard touchdown, with 1:11 left in the second quarter.
The conversion was no good, and Derby took a 26 – 13 lead.
French praised Derby’s effort to prevent Ansonia from breaking the game open at any time.
“We weren’t going to give up the big one,” French said. “We kept hitting them, and hitting them and hitting them That was our plan.”
Regarding the halftime deficit, the biggest the Chargers have endured all season, Brockett spoke of the team’s relaxed attitude.
“You can’t panic. We try to break the game into smaller segments and cut into the lead,” Brockett said. “I thought we did a real good job of not panicking and continuing to make first downs.”
Ansonia Wakes Up
The second half largely favored the Chargers, as they outscored the Red Raiders 20 – 6.
Dobbs ran for paydirt again with 8:30 left in the third quarter, when he ran five yards to the right to cut the lead to seven; 26 – 19.
Derby tried to keep the momentum going, and looked to do so when Kreiger threw a 39-yard pass to Hendricks, getting to the Ansonia three-yard line. That would set up a Kreiger pass to Tomczak, making the score 32 – 19, with 6:23 left in the third quarter.
French was positive about Kreiger, Tomczak and Hendricks’ performances, but overall was disappointed that the Red Raiders were unable to pull off the upset.
“They all stepped up. They all played well. But as I said, we made some errors. We gotta shore up those errors. We can’t let that happen,” French said. “We will be back. We’ll be okay. We’ll learn from this. This is a good learning experience. We will be back.”
The Chargers answered right back, when Chudwick threw a 20-yard touchdown with 2:05 left in the third. Again, the conversion failed.
The Red Raiders head home to play Wilby (1 – 6) next Friday at 7 p.m. The Chargers will head to Bristol to take on St. Paul Catholic (2 – 5) Friday at 7 p.m. as well.
