Mountaineers fall to strong Ellington team

Falls Village — The Housatonic Valley Regional High School Mountaineers football team (which includes players from Wamogo High School) once again made enough mistakes to let a winnable game slip away in the second half, falling to the Ellington Knights, 28-6, Saturday, Nov. 7.

“It all comes down to fundamentals — holding on to the football, tackling, basic football skills,� Coach Deron Bayer said after the game. “We emphasize this in practice all week, but you have to execute them on game day.�

The Mountaineers held the Knights to a single touchdown in the first half, with a couple excellent defensive stands and some outstanding punts by Tanner Brissett, one of which placed the ball at Ellington’s 1-yard line.

With the Knights leading 7-0, Housatonic kicked off to start the second half. On the second play from scrimmage, Ellington’s Nate Trembi found an opening and dashed 48 yards for a touchdown. With another successful extra point, the Mountaineers were down 14-0 early in the third quarter.

But Housy responded. Brissett found Zach Williams open for a 48-yard pass that put the Mountaineers on the scoreboard. The two-point conversion failed, but Housy narrowed the gap to 14-6.

The next series exemplified all that is good, and not so good, about this year’s team. With the Knights driving the field, Brissett jumped a pass route and picked off the ball, returning the interception to the Ellington 32-yard line. The Mountaineers had the ball deep in the Knights’ territory, and all the momentum to tie up the game. But a Housy fumble gave the ball right back to Ellington, and once again Trembi broke off a huge 70-yard run for another touchdown.  

This 14-point swing was the turning point of what had been a close game, and the Mountaineers were unable to recover.

Although they continued to play hard, with Joe Habacker pulling down an interception in the fourth quarter, which led to a drive to the Knights’ 15-yard line, another fumble once again thwarted Housy’s chance to score. Ellington’s Trembi pulled off the hat trick, scoring for the third time on an 11-yard touchdown to put the game at 28-6.

 The 1-6 Mountaineers’ last home game of the season, against a 1-7 Stafford team, will be played Saturday, Nov. 14, at 1 p.m.   Housy has a perfect 6-0 record against this team, but Stafford is improving despite their record.  This will also be the game where the Mountaineers honor their senior class, so arrive early for the festivities.