October 10, 2005McMahon Holds Off Trinityfrom The Stamford Advocate The play of the game was a microcosm of last night's high school football game at Brien McMahon High School's Jack Casagrande Field. Both teams messed up on the play, but McMahon emerged with the best end of the deal on it and that enabled the Senators to hold off Trinity Catholic for a 19-14 victory. The Senators had a 19-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter and the game was quite in the balance for a couple seconds when McMahon punter Frank Guthman bent down to haul in a low snap that bounced in front of him at his own 5-yard line. Crusaders were in on him quickly, and it looked like they would tackle Guthman or perhaps block the punt. In other words, the strong possibility existed that the Crusaders might score a go-ahead touchdown on the play or get possession of the ball deep in McMahon territory. But Guthman made a nice play to catch the bouncing snap and then, rather than try to rush away from the onrushing Crusaders, he simply punted it toward an opening he saw to his right and got it 50 yards downfield. Better yet for the Senators was that Trinity Catholic was whistled for a running-into-the-kicker personal foul on the play with 5:23 left in the game. "Actually, at first I was thinking about running it. But I knew it was too far to run for a first down and I would've gotten tackled," Guthman said. "So I was just trying to get (the punt) off as fast as possible. I didn't even stand straight up. I just bent down, caught it, then I just turned to my right, found an opening and kicked it." The penalty gave the Senators a new set of downs and enabled to run some precious minutes off the clock to escape with the victory. "I didn't know what happened," said Guthman, who was down on the turf in pain for a couple minutes after being drilled in his hip by a yellow Crusader helmet. "I thought they blocked it. I got to the sideline and my teammates told me: 'Nice kick.' " "We caught a bad break on the roughing-the-kicker call," Trinity Catholic coach Bryan Fox said. "We figured we'd rush hard and take a shot at it. They had the bad snap and it was a bad play for them, then it turned out being a bad play for us. I don't want to say it was a bad call. It was a bad break for us and it's something we're going to have to learn from." Both teams are now 2-2. Brien McMahon quarterback Peter Raymond and Trinity Catholic quarterback Anas Koummal each threw a touchdown pass and scored on a quarterback sneak. Kevin Fico scored on a 3-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter to stake the Senators to a 19-7 lead. Fico rushed for 48 yards on five carries on the nine-play, 67-yard drive that was kept alive when Corey Toby hauled in a 24-yard reception down the right seam on a third-and-18 situation. Three plays later when the Crusaders had a second-and-15 from their own 25, John O'Leary nabbed a 39-yard pass down the middle and Kyle Foti followed with a 21-yard run to set them up at McMahon's 15. Koummal used some extra effort to break tackles on a 10-yard gain and work his way down to the 1. He snuck in for the TD on the next play. Kenny Holbert kicked the extra point to cut McMahon's lead to 19-14 with 1:48 remaining in the third quarter. McMahon's Mike Banks opened the scoring with a 38-yard touchdown reception from Raymond. Banks made another nice play when he stopped and turned around to haul in a 34-yard catch. That was the major play on the drive that Raymond capped with his 1-yard TD run that gave the Senators a 13-0 lead midway through the second quarter. The Crusaders mustered minimal offense in the first 18 minutes but then the Koummal-Gene DeVito connection heated up for three plays in a row. DeVito jumped up to haul in a 22-yard reception. Then he caught a pass in the flat and used a couple nice moves to shake two defenders on a 20-yard gain that set it up on McMahon's 19. On the next play, DeVito avoided the chuck at the line of scrimmage, he got down the right sideline and Koummal led him perfectly into the end zone. Then the two teams each got those touchdowns in the third quarter. "I'm not happy," McMahon coach Joe SantaLucia said. "I can't go home from here feeling good because we got the win. Offensively, their guys destroyed our running game. They took away almost all of our inside running game. We had some good moments, but I think we're a better team offensively than we showed tonight." Fox was dejected that a win escaped his team. His players were just as dejected and he viewed that as a good sign. "I'm proud because this hurts," Fox said. "These kids aren't settling for just playing hard anymore. This team is ready to win some games. We're going to win some games. There's no doubt in my mind that we're going to win more games than we lose from here on in."
 Big senior defensive tackle Vladimir Joseph swims by an offensive lineman in a 28-20 home victory over Fairfield Ludlowe on October 29, 2005. (CrusaderNation.net / Dana Maul)
 Junior defensive tackle Santiago "Teggy" Steele wraps up a Darien
rusher as his
 Junior center Cory Johnson prepares to snap the ball to fellow classmate
 The Crusader offensive line pushes Bassick around in the mud. The
Crusaders
 Senior wideout Rob Hawthorn races downfield to block as junior fullback
Eric Stephens
 2005 All-FCIAC East Offense Row 1, Left to Right: Eric Wells, Bassick; Willie Epps, McMahon;
Pete Raymond,
 2005 All-FCIAC East Defense Row 1, Left to Right: Joe Luchesi, Danbury; Greg Sabo, Danbury; James
Taylor, Danbury;
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