October 30, 2005Sloppy Success: Trinity's not crisp, but still tops Ludlowefrom The Stamford Advocate STAMFORD -- It was not quite as crisp of a performance as the Trinity Catholic High School football players and coaches would have preferred. The Crusaders had to fight off a determined effort from a Fairfield Ludlowe team with a final defensive stand in the game's waning seconds to reach the bottom line, which was a 28-20 victory on their own Alumni Field. Eric Stephens caught a touchdown pass from Anas Koummal, those two each had 1-yard touchdown runs, A.J. Nelson had an 86-yard TD run among his 158 rushing yards on just nine carries, and Wellington Mara's grandson Ryan Durkin intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble deep in Trinity territory to help the Crusaders improve to 4-3. "We played really sloppy," Stephens said. "It's the worst we've probably played all year. But when it counted we made the plays we needed to make." "A win is a win," Trinity Catholic coach Bryan Fox said. "Give me 10 of these and I'll sign up every season. But it was a lackadaisical game for us." Pat Dowling caught touchdown passes of 25 and 48 yards from quarterback Matt Deliberti for Ludlowe (1-6). After Stephens dove over the right side into the end zone for his 1-yard score, Kenny Holbert added the extra-point kick to stake the Crusaders to a 28-20 lead with 5:30 left in the game. But coach Mike Forget's Falcons had been battling all game, so they went down firing a final salvo. They began their drive on their own 47 and got three first downs. Brooks Cunningham made a fine sprawling 9-yard catch to give them a first-and-goal from the 10 with 1:27 remaining and no timeouts left. Andrew Shannon and Vinny Cortese combined to drop Kevin Keys for a loss of a yard, so Deliberti had to spike the ball to stop the clock on the next play. Deliberti faded back to pass on third down, he found no one open so he scrambled up the middle before Cortese and Anthony Kurche halted his gain at 3 yards. That set up a fourth-and-goal from the 8 and Trinity's Dave Macari had great coverage to break up Deliberti's pass to Mike Skiba in the end zone. "This was definitely a very competitive game," Forget said. "Things were swinging both ways, momentum changes were happening on every single play. Our guys fought to the end. They didn't give up. That was good to see." With the Crusaders admittedly coming out flat, Ludlowe's Ben Brennan scooped up an ill-advised errant option pitch by Koummal and returned it 34 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring with 11:29 left in the second quarter. Koummal rebounded to march the Crusaders 59 yards in just four plays. He connected with Stephens on a 30-yard completion down the left sideline and two plays later they ran the same play, with Stephens utilizing a nice block by Shannon near the pylon to leap in and culminate the 17-yard TD reception. Holbert added the extra point to give Trinity a 7-6 advantage. Dowling hauled in his first 17-yard TD reception off of a play-action on fourth and a foot midway through the second period. Anas Koummal gave the Crusaders the lead for good late in the first half on his quarterback sneak and Santiago Steele barreled in for the two-point conversion to make it 15-12. The Falcons tried to take the lead midway through the third quarter by tricking Trinity with a halfback option pass to Dowling in the end zone. The 5-foot-10 Durkin jumped up with the 6-foot-5 Dowling for the ball, and they both went for it. Durkin won the battle for the ball as they fell to the ground. "He had a step on me, I turned around, everybody was yelling: 'Ball,' so I just wanted to grab it," Durkin said. "I knew I was going to get it as soon as a I saw it in the air." That was just his first big play. With the Falcons looking to take the lead when they had a first-and-goal from the Trinity Catholic 3 on the second play of the fourth quarter, Durkin had swift penetration on the option pitch to cause Keys to look at Durkin while muffing the pitch and Durkin pounced on the loose ball. Three plays later Nelson broke a couple tackles to get to the right sideline and he tight-roped the sideline for his 86-yard TD scamper that put the Crusaders in control for good.
 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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