Derby fell to Sacred Heart 38 – 20 after a myriad of missed opportunities doomed the Red Raiders at DeFilippo Field Friday night.
Sacred Heart (2 – 0) quarterback Rohan Ifill had a massive day for the visitors, scoring six touchdowns, three through the air and three on the ground.
Derby (0 – 2) looked to get a jump on Sacred Heart early in the game, but a pass from Ray Kreiger to Jonathan Haydu out wide turned disastrous, as Haydu fumbled into the end zone for the touchback in what would have been a 52-yard touchdown.
Sacred Heart took advantage of the Derby blunder when Ifill hit David Coggins for a 16-yard score with 6:55 left in the first quarter to make it 6 – 0. The PAT was blocked.
The highlight of Derby’s first half was quarterback Ray Kreiger connected with Haydu for a 45-yard touchdown.
After leading 12 – 7 at the half, Sacred Heart’s Ifill iced the game for the Hearts with 3:03 left in the third when he rushed for a 10-yard touchdown. The two point conversion was good, making the score 26 – 13.
The Red Raiders would fumble on the kickoff return, which led to another Ifill touchdown with 27 seconds left in the third quarter, to make the score 32 – 13. The extra point was no good.
Ifill would add to the Red Raiders’ hurt with a 33-yard touchdown to David Coggins with 5:23 left in the game.
Derby’s Kreiger had a solid day, scoring two touchdowns.
Derby head football coach George French was happy with Kreiger’s improvements from last week.
“Kreiger was comfortable in the pocket this week. He was making great reads. He was right on,” he said.
French’s team had many opportunities to stay in the game, but turnovers and failed drives crippled the Red Raiders throughout the game.
“We work ball drills every day. We had a nice run on a bubble screen-fumbled the football. We had another nice run on one of our run plays-fumbled the football. Kickoff-fumbled the football,” French said. “We had five turnovers that really hurt us.”
French was upset with the defense’s missed opportunities in the loss.
“There was a lot of missed tackles. Missed assignments,” he said. “Guys were put in a position to make a play, and they didn’t.”
Derby hosts Naugatuck Friday at 7 p.m.
Other local football scores Friday:
Ansonia 34, Crosby 19
Watertown 26, Seymour 7
