Playing classic smash-mouth football, the Wilton 4 Grade White football team crushed Darien, 21-0, on Sunday on the Darien High School turf.
After Darien went three and out on its first possession, Wilton went to work from the 40. The offensive line of Camilo Galeano, Eric Zhang, Cooper Heinemann, Stephen Kendra, Griffin Morris, Patrick Coulter and Trent Hollings dominated the line of scrimmage, opening holes for halfback Drew Phillips and fullback Austin Andersen. Running off guard and off tackle, the Warriors took it straight at the Darien defense, putting together a 40-yard, nine-play drive. It ended with a 2-yard dive by Phillips for the touchdown. He added the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.
The defense was stellar. The defensive front of Jack Santomero, Nick Sheehan, Morris, Heinemann, Hollings and Coulter gang tackled. And when Darien moved the ball past the line of scrimmage, its ball carriers were met with crushing hits by linebackers Cole Stephenson, Andersen and Phillips.
On offense, it was more of the same, with Ryan Healey calling signals and the offense pounding the ball down the middle until Drew Phillips took a trick handoff and rambled 46 yards down the sideline for another touchdown. Patrick Coulter rushed for the extra point and it was 15-0 at halftime.
Austin Andersen took a handoff from Cole Stephenson on the first play of the second half and raced 26 yards past midfield, crushing any hopes Darien had of changing the momentum.
Darien got the ball back, but Niko Kouvaris, Ben Leung, DJ DiCostanzo, Matthew LaManna, Oliver Shulman and Tate Falta were up to the task. Every time Darien gained yardage, the defense stopped it cold on the next play.
Wiltons final touchdown was scored by Patrick Coulter, who walked into the end zone behind great blocking by the left side of the Wilton offensive line.
On the last drive of the game, Darien began to move the ball. With seconds to play, the Darien runner broke free and streaked up the sideline. But safety Dominick Caratazzolo made a great tackle to preserve the shutout and the 21-0 victory. Wilton is now 2-0 on the season.
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