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Southington will employ four backs against St. Paul
By TIM CLEVELAND
SOUTHINGTON
Having qualified for its first playoff appearance since 2001, Southington will be back on the road tonight at 7 against Norwalk St. Paul in a Division VII, Region 23 game.
For the Wildcats to advance beyond that point, they will need a big game from their senior quartet of running backs — Brendan Baugher (551 yards rushing with 12 touchdowns), Dillon Nezbeth (599, 2), John Mazzola (90, 1) and Chris Warnick (36, 2).
“They’re kind of the focal point of our offense,” Southington coach Ryan Slone said. “We like to run the ball. Those guys are not selfish, they’re four different guys that run the ball for us. Most teams have that one guy with 1,000 yards. They’re willing to come out and let another guy run the ball for us.”
“It’s just been the senior class,” Baugher said of the reason for the program’s improvement. “We’re all leaders on the team. We put in the work. There’s really no one person you can say that leads the team. It’s really special to be one of two teams to go to the playoffs in school history.”
It was seemingly fate that the Wildcats made the postseason, as they lost their final two regular season games, both at home.
Heading into its Week 10 home game against Pymatuning Valley, all Southington had to do was win and the Wildcats would clinch a playoff spot.
Southington led by two touchdowns at halftime, but PV came back for a 28-21 victory that cast doubt on the Wildcats’ postseason chances.
Slone said he kept a close eye on the results of last Saturday’s games to see if his team would qualify.
“It definitely was hard,” Slone said. “There wasn’t much that was said to the kids on Friday. It was an emotional loss. When we got together I told the kids see you guys on Monday at 4:30, whether we’ll be practicing or turning our gear in. We knew after Friday what had to happen.”
What had to happen was Warren John F. Kennedy, Youngstown Christian and Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic all had to lose. Amazingly, all three did and Southington was in.
“After one team lost, we were waiting for the other two,” Slone said. “When they lost, at about 9:30 I sent the message out.”
“We were just hoping the cards would fall in our favor,” Baugher said. “We beat the right teams. Most of the team was at a party when we found out. We were jumping for joy. It was unreal.
“I still feel like deserve to be here. I’m glad things worked out for us.”
This season was huge in another way for the program, as the seniors were able to play their first home games at Wildcat Acres for the first time since they were freshmen due to renovations on the facility.
“For me it feels really great to play on it this year,” Nezbeth said. “It feels great to be at home and play on our home field. It’s great to play for the community and have them watch us at home.”
“It feels great,” Baugher said. “The last time we played there, we had 18 kids on the team; it was a bad feeling. It’s a new feeling. The town’s behind us; we have full stands every game.SDRq