Lady Knights draw top seed in CCC Tourney

With the girls volleyball regular season now just a backdrop for the postseason to come, the Central Connecticut Conference has released the seeds for the CCC Tournament set to start Monday, Nov. 1. The seeds are as follows:

1. Southington (14-0)
2. RHAM (14-0)- head to head
3. Glastonbury (13-1)
4. Bristol Eastern (13-1) overall winning percentage
5. Farmington (12-2)
6. South Windsor (12-2) Overall winning percentage
7. Tolland (11-3)
8. EO Smith (11-3) head to head
9. Bristol Central (10-4)
10.Maloney (10-4) head to head
11.Simsbury (9-5)
12.East Catholic (9-5) overall winning percentage

Breaking down Southington-Manchester football, Oct. 22

Photo by Matt Leidemer

So in my previous post I explained the implications, now let's look at the match-up a little more carefully.

So far, in two games, freshman quarterback Stephen Barmore (pictured right against East Catholic) has done everything and more. He was faced with a couple of lesser defensive teams and he took advantage. Now on the season, he is 26-for-31 (that includes a 1-for-2 against Windsor) for 503 yards passing and eight TD tosses. Maybe most astounding is the completion percentage of 83.9 percent.

He is going to get a real test against a very good defense in the Manchester Indians (4-1). According to the CIAC and MaxPreps, Manchester is No. 20 in the entire state with nine sacks on the season. Barmore hasn't gotten a lot of pressure, he will in this game, how will he react?

Southington-Manchester game will make big impact on Class LL playoffs

I'm going to just come out and say it, this is the game of the year. Why? Well, pretty
simple. I laid it out in my article for this week saying plainly, whoever wins this game is going to get a huge, turkey leg up in deciding who plays after Thanksgiving. For Southington, it might mean even more.

After tomorrow, Southington's final four games are as follows:

1. Oct. 29, Simsbury (1-4)
2. Nov. 5, Newington (0-5)
3. Nov. 12, East Hartford (2-3)
4. Nov. 25, Cheshire (2-3)

See the trend? Those four teams combined have one more win than Manchester (4-1) does right now. And outside of Cheshire, they are as bad as their records show. Simsbury is down this season after having a couple solid year; Newington is back to playing dreadful football; and East Hartford is not good...they lost to Farmington...in FOOTBALL! That doesn't happen on a normal basis. Southington should beat all those teams, even with their injuries. An x-factor: the Blue Knights will likely get quarterback Connor Butkiewicz back for one, two or even three of those games.

Quotes from 91-79 girls swim win over Newington

Head coach Jay Dubinsky on how Laurel Dean swims races:

"Laurel Dean is a freshman and to see somebody kick it into the next gear like she's done every race this meet, I told her when she was done, she’s just a beast.

"She's really stepped up and she knows how to swim the races. She knows what she has left in her tank, she swims her race and at the end, she just puts it all on the line."

Dubinsky on whether he felt confident a win was coming:

"I don't know if I ever did."

Dubinsky on intermission:

"It was nice going into the break being tied."

Dubinsky on state-bound swimmers and divers:

 "We have a good contingent that I think is going to go."

For a full recap and photos, check the front sports page of this Friday's Citizen.

Southington-East Catholic football preview

So quickly debriefing on last week, let's hit the bullet points in the New Britain win:

• The defense remains the key to all of Southington's success this season.
• Freshman quarterback Stephen Barmore played well, completing all but one pass, but was helped by a porous defense from the Golden Hurricanes. Still, all things considered, it was a really good start to the SHS career and he's got to have confidence coming off the game.
• Clearly the run game will be counted on and Matt Scarpati is that guy. He paced the offense and got it off and running last Friday. Look for him to continue to make life easy for Barmore.
• Tyler Dube is the real deal. Yeah, it sounds fancy, but he is a really good receiver. He showed it last week when he made a catch on a deep ball that was slightly under-thrown: he came back, hung in the air and brought it down. He's also made some plays like that on defense as a safety. His value cannot go unnoticed.
• Jordan Chapman's addition has been very helpful as an extra athlete on the field. While he is trying to learn the game at a fast pace, playing as a corner on the opposite of Mark Tellerico gives Southington two athletic corners, who have the ability to cover and keep up with most wideouts.

With all that now in the rear view, shall we look ahead? We shall.

Quotes from Knights' 41-6 win vs. New Britain

Quotes from D.J. Hernandez following Southington's 41-6 win over New Britain.

On the win:

"The players deserve all the credit."

"I'm really proud of our guys, but we still have to get better. I’m never going to be satisfied, I know our guys aren't going to be either, so we're going to enjoy the win tonight, we're going to get back at it and get ready for next week (against East Catholic)."

On freshman quarterback Stephen Barmore's performance:

"The biggest thing with him is he just has to take what they give him, listen to coach and not try to make huge plays, if he does that he’ll be fine.

Quote from Stephen Barmore

On starting:

"Coach told me at the beginning of the week and my teammates backed me up 100 percent, did the best they could teaching me everything I needed to know for the game. I really give them a lot of credit because they guided me through the whole game."

For more on the win, check out this Friday's Citizen, turn to Sports.

Initial thoughts between New Britain-Southington football

So far I really like what I see from Southington and am pretty distraught over what I see from New Britain. The Golden Hurricanes aren't the team I grew up watching destroy my alma mater, which will remain nameless. Southington though came out starting freshman QB Stephen Barmore and he's been all but perfect, throwing only one incomplete pass to this point, 6 minutes left in third quarter, and two touchdown scores. Granted guys were open, but you still have to throw the pass and he has. I've been saying that he is probably your best backup to Connor Butkiewicz and he's done well in his first varsity start.

Defense looks good again for Southington, getting picks from Mark Tellerico and Tyler Dube, and the offense has spread it out between Dube, Jordan Chapman, Matt Scarpati running the ball and Zach Wholley catching and running. Glad to see the freshman Barmore succeeding and interesting and surprising seeing the dominant effort by Southington.

Again, don't let the defense go unnoticed! So far, another shutout.

New Britain-Southington football preview

The usually competitive "Battle at The Rent" comes to East Hartford again tomorrow (Oct. 8) as Southington and New Britain will duke it out in what has become a yearly tradition at the home of the UConn Football Huskies. Except this year, it will be less of a battle as both teams are facing down years. New Britain's football program seems to be in utter shambles and Southington has already had long-term injuries to three key players.

The Knights come in 2-1 and the certain favorite. They have two wins, one of them a quality victory over Glastonbury (2-1), the other coming against South Windsor, a team that New Britain actually lost to in SW's first year in Division I of the CCC. The Golden Hurricanes are 1-2 and the only victory on their resume is against a lowly Newington squad who has yet to win a game and looks to be reverting to the Newington teams of the early decade that struggled for two wins a season.

So to say that this is a juggernaut CCC matchup is a slight overstatement. Southington, thanks to injuries, doesn't look like the teams of the past, but does boast one of the best, if not the best defense its had in recent memory. The offense, lacking the services of quarterback Connor Butkiewicz (appendix) and Wildcat back Joe Pesce (leg) is in trouble. The only option in the passing game is receiver Tyler Dube and counterpart Jordan Chapman, but without anyone to throw them the ball, there are massive, massive concerns and questions. Who's the answer?

NEW Lady Knights hoops coach hired

The Southington Athletic Department announced the hiring of a new girls basketball coach for this coming winter, replacing outgoing Jim DiNello. The release:

Mike Forgione has been appointed head varsity girls basketball coach at Southington High School. He brings extensive coaching experience to Southington High School and is leaving Wethersfield High School where they reached the CIAC Class L State Championship game last year. He previously was head coach at Farmington High School from 1998-2005 and his overall record was 108-60. Mike is a professional educator at Wolcott High School, where he teaches physical education and health.