The Seymour Wildcats concluded a 0 – 9 season Wednesday, falling to the Woodland Hawks 47 – 7 in Beacon Falls.
Woodland capitalized on a pair of early fumbles by the Wildcats and ran away with the game to wrap up a spot in the post season. Seymour just couldn’t overcome mistakes that dug a hole for them all season.
“Defensively Woodland flies to the football and they were playing for a playoff spot so they came right at us,” said Seymour head coach Tom Lennon. “The turnovers have been hampering us all year and it’s baffling. You can’t win a football game giving away opportunities.”
It didn’t help matters that the Woodland defense was all over the Cats as the Hawks held a 180 to 7 yard advantage with 6:56 left in the first half. At that point the Hawks were cruising with a 21 – 0 lead.
On the second play from scrimmage to start the game the Cats fumbled it away and Woodland wasted no time. Jack DeBiase took it around the corner for a 35 yard jaunt and a 6 – 0 lead just :20 seconds into the contest.
After a Seymour punt DeBiase engineered an eight play drive culminating with four yard touchdown pass to Ian Bures. Craig Genz barreled in for the two point conversion to open a 14 – 0 advantage with 4:19 left in the first quarter.
The two teams traded punts and then another Wildcat mistake took the door off the hinges. Bures recovered a fumble at the Woodland 18 yard line to stop a deep drive by the Cats.
A 10-play drive with Genz churning up 48 yards worth of real estate on six carries pushed the advantage out to 21 – 0 with 6:56 left in the half.
Seymour needed desperately to make something happen to turn the tide in their favor. Dylan Sadick provided that with a fumble recovery, the only Woodland miscue all game.
It didn’t help the outcome on the scoreboard as three plays later Seymour was lining up to punt for the fourth time in the first half. DeBiase blasted his way for a 25 yard pickup before Genz piled into the end zone from three yards out to build a 27 – 0 halftime lead.
The Cats began to move the ball in the second half as quarterback Luke Grabowksi 7 of 18 passing for 78 yards in the game moved the chains three times on the initial drive of the second half.
That momentum was short lived as the Hawks Anthony Scirpo took it 65 yards to the house to open up a commanding 34 – 0 lead. Woodland pushed the advantage out to 41 – 0 to start the fourth quarter when back-up quarterback Tanner Kingsley pushed it in from a yard out.
With 10:43 left in the game the Hawks were running away with it on top 41 – 0. Jon Wilson and Jim Vartelas began to move the rock for the Cats as Seymour ended up with 98 yards of rushing.
Grabowski hooked up with Damien Granda on four passes for 51 yards but the hole that Cat dug was way too deep. Vartelas stuck it into the end zone with 4:54 to play on a four yard blast but it was too little to late for the Wildcats.
Alex Bloomingdale put the finishing touches on the Hawks win ripping off a 43 yard touchdown jaunt with under two minutes to play.
“We are going to take a day off and have some Turkey,” said Lennon. “Then we will go back to work and start looking at what we need to do to get better for next year.”
