Richards Grinds It Out On the Gridiron in MHS Victory

Manchester’s second straight football victory wasn’t earned in any complicated way Friday night. It was not fueled by a high-powered, wide-open offense.

Instead, the Indians shut down Simsbury for a long stretch after falling into a hole in the second quarter. Manchester ran the ball almost exclusively in rallying for a 22-14 win during a CCC interdivision game at Memorial Field.

Manchester’s offense was redesigned after the season-ending injury to featured running back Elijah Udoh in last week’s victory over South Windsor. Junior Roy Richards assumed that role and his 13-yard touchdown cut the Trojans’ lead to 14-13 with 1:37 left in the third quarter.

Junior Courtney DeBerry’s 30-yard field goal gave the Indians (2-1) a 16-14 lead with 3:07 remaining in the fourth quarter. Junior quarterback Marquis Little’s second touchdown run of the game with 49.3 seconds to play, an 11-yarder, provided a cushion and the final margin.

“Roy did a workmanlike job,” Manchester coach Marco Pizzoferrato said. Richards carried the ball 40 times, despite cramping-up and leaving the game twice, the first while celebrating his touchdown. “He stepped up when we needed someone to step up with Elijah getting hurt. He really accepted that role.”

Most of Richards’s rushes were not highlight film material. He did not leave Simsbury defenders clutching at air. Richards methodically found the holes provided by the linemen, battled through Simsbury’s tacklers – who were focused on his every move – and alternated short, tough yardage runs with big gainers.

In the end, it added up to 188 yards. He was the driving force.

“He did a decent job,” Simsbury coach Jeff Osborne said about Richards. “He had a lot of carries but he didn’t fumble and that was huge. We were really defending the edge but he hurt us inside a little. We were on track, then we had a couple of penalties and those punts hurt us.”

The Trojans (1-2) had a pair of short punts, which helped the Indians, yet it was a turnover that really lifted Manchester. Ashton Grant recovered a Simsbury fumble at the Trojans’ 42-yard line. Five plays later, Richards scored what could have been the equalizer but the Indians’ running conversion failed and left them down by 14-13.

A 12-yard punt by Simsbury on its first possession of the fourth quarter set the Indians up at their 44-yard line. They moved to the Simsbury 13-yard line where DeBerry punched in his 30-yard field goal for the 16-14 lead after Manchester wound 5:01 off the clock. The biggest play was Grant’s 18-yard reception on the first play of the drive.

Manchester’s defense was hard-nosed, quick to the ball and error free. But the Indians’ efforts on defense were aided by the Trojans’ attempts to adjust to key injuries on offense. They lost their top two quarterbacks to injury in the first two games and after the reserves failed to impress in last week’s 28-0 loss to Conard, Osborne elected to install a no-quarterback offense, a single wing, with the ball being snapped to ball carriers.

The new attack was effective for awhile. Once the Indians’ defense made on-field adjustments, though, Simsbury’s offense could not threaten. “We put in this offense four days ago,” Osborne said. “We decided to let it go and see how it went. We have a bunch more to add.”

The Trojans opened the scoring four minutes into the game on Blair Zentek’s 34-yard run for an 8-0 lead. After Manchester scored on Little’s 10-yard run to start the second quarter, Simsbury moved in front 14-7 midway through the second quarter on Zentek’s four-yard run. That came two plays after a Manchester snap sailed over the punter and Simsbury took over at the Indians’ 4-yard line. The first half ended with Simsbury leading by 14-7.

“The past three games we’ve run the ball well in the second half,” Pizzoferrato said. “The line did a real good job tonight.” He praised linemen Cris Sanchez, Zeke Lombard, Chris Simmons, Norb Cardona and Brian Donovan, as well as tight end DeBerry and blocking backs Grant and Andrew Isaacs.

They didn’t dominate their Simsbury counterparts but they clearly had the upper hand. Their work allowed Richards to take advantage. “The biggest thing for us was there were no turnovers,” Pizzoferrato said.

Glastonbury (2-0), which plays Conard on Saturday, will play host to Manchester on Oct. 7 at 3:30 p.m. in a CCC Division I East game.