Damien Granda squared his shoulders and bowled over his defender falling into the end zone with 5:11 remaining in the third quarter.
Bobby Gombos booted the extra point to hand the Wildcats a 21 – 20 lead over Watertown on Friday at DeBarber Field in Seymour.
The battle was on but starting quarterback Connor Shugrue was injured on the touchdown and it proved to be the last straw for the Cats. Earlier at the end of the first half Seymour also lost the services of starting running back Taylor Searles to an injury.
The deck was stacked against the Wildcats and Watertown used it to its advantage as they rallied for 21 unanswered points to pull away with a 41 – 21 victory over Seymour.
“We fought hard and I’m proud of that,” said Seymour head coach Tom Lennon. “We caught some bad breaks but I believe in this team and we are going to get better.”
“We are going to go back to practice and fix some of the things that we did wrong. I hope our injuries are not too serious and we also lost our backup quarterback in practice this week.”
“That left us with a freshman Mike Conlan at quarterback and I thought in spite of the situation he did a good job for us.”
It didn’t help matters that Seymour turned the ball over six times but it was a testament to their character that they actually led this game with five minutes left in the third quarter in spite of the mistakes.
Watertown broke out on top with 9:12 left in the opening quarter after recovering a fumbled punt. It took the Indians just three plays to cash in when quarterback Matt Quatrano threw a 47 yard touchdown pass to C.J. Bendler.
As the first quarter was winding down Gombos came up with a fumble recovery to set up Seymour at the Indians front door on the 24 yard line. Taylor Searles (8 carries, 38 yards) picked up a pair of six yard carries to move the chains behind Dylan Sadick, Chris Wilson and Jacob Drozd up front.
On a third and ten at the 11 yard line Shugrue (4 for 9 passing, 55 yards and 6 carries, 42 yards) headed for the corner as James Tyer and Josh Tilton cleared the way up front.
At 3:59 left in the first quarter it was a tie game at 7 – 7 and both teams had capitalized on fumble recoveries.
Watertown was moving the ball effectively with Quatrano going 8 of 11 for 122 yards in the air and Anton Galaganov with 122 of the Indians 269 yards on the ground.
“The last time we beat Seymour was in 1997,” said Watertown head coach Roger Oullette.
“I told the kids before we came here that to go down in the valley and play a team like Seymour we needed our best effort and that’s what they gave.”
On the first drive of the second quarter Shugrue led an 11 play drive that began at the Wildcats 15 yard line. A 23 yard pass to Granda and an 11 yard sideline route to Donnel Lewis picked up two of the four first downs as the Cats drove deep into Indians territory.
With 7:46 to go before the half Jon Wilson ( 8 carries, 59 yards) barreled in from eight yards out for a 14 – 7 Seymour lead.
The Indians recovered a fumble at the Seymour 33 yard line to begin a game tying drive and Quatrano took it the last six yards to make it 14 – 14 at the half.
“The seniors we have on this team have a lot of pride and character and they are not going to let this season turn into a negative,” said Lennon.
“We will fix the mistakes we made and come out and turn this thing around. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a good football team.”
Watertown came right out in the second half and 47 yards down the field all on the ground before Will Ernst pounded it in from two yards out. Jon Wilson broke through to block the extra point as the Indians held a 20 – 14 lead.
Chris Wilson recovered a Watertown fumble at the 14 yard line that set up the go ahead score for the Wildcats. Granda took it in and Gombos put Seymour on top with the extra point at 21 – 20 with 5:11 to go in the third quarter.
The bottom dropped out when another Seymour turnover gave Watertown the ball at the Indians 26 yard line with 10:41 left in the game.
It took eight plays before Ernst found an opening on the line and slammed into the end zone with 7:45 to go to put the Indians back on top 26 – 21.
A fumbled snap and a botched onsides kick gave Watertown the ball two more times and they put it into the end zone on both occasions with Tim Kinsella scoring the touchdowns for the 41 – 21 final margin.
