The MSW (Morgan Saybrook Westbrook) football team took yet another loss to begin the season 0-5 after another loss to Cromwell/Portland, North Branford, Rockville, Valley Regional/Old Lyme,
and HK. HK, a rival of the Huskies, was an especially hard loss. The Huskies found themselves down 35-0 at halftime against the Cougars, and it didn’t get any better from there, with the final score ending 43-0.
“This is a very different start to the year than last year,” said second-year starting quarterback, Trevor Powell. Last year, the Huskies started the season off 3-0 with wins over HK, Coventry, and Capital Prep.
“ We graduated a lot of our starters last year,” said senior Captain, Hunter Roth. “We lost Jack Nye who was a huge part of our team as well as Tyler Baldwin who was our starting Quarterback during our first three games of the season.”
“We also lack size this season, after graduating three of our biggest starters with Jack Nye, Jacob Jones, and Casey Corrigan.” Said Hunter. “The three of them were three-year varsity starters and Jack currently plays football at Colby College.”
With this week being MSW’s bye week, they have time to recover from a rough first half and prepare for the second half of the season. Trevor Powell said, “Hopefully by the end of this week we will be fully recovered and ready to get our first win in our next game against Weaver.” Weaver has also had a rough season, starting from 0-4. All their games have been blowout wins for the other team. They are still a bigger school than Morgan though, with around 650 students in the high school compared to Morgan’s 500.
Both Trevor and Hunter talked about the new formations and plays they are running. They talked about having to try something new each game to try to outsmart their opponents. “We lost a lot of size after last year,” said Roth. “We are much smaller than the teams we play, so getting the ball away from the line is important. That’s why we have to try new things every game, if we do the same thing every game the other team will figure us out.
Trevor Powell explained that last year’s coaches and this year’s coaches have very different styles. “Everything is different this year, the energy, the plays, the formations, what drills we do at practice, everything. It isn’t bad, it just takes some getting used to.” Although there are more coaches than last year. Last year’s head Coach, Kevin Sullivan, had more energy on the sidelines and during practice, according to four of last year’s players. This year Coach Casey Trasacco is a bit more serious about games and practice, largely due to the difference in the record from last year.
All the captains believe that the team’s effort is there, that’s one thing everyone can agree on. Nobody is out there on the field being lazy. Everybody goes to practice to work hard and get better. “The thing we need to work on the most is our execution. If everyone goes out on the field and gets their job done we will win games. It’s that simple,” said Roth. The players believe that they are ready for Weaver and prepared for the second half of the season. Hopefully, MSW will be able to pull together, improve their skill, and make a comeback this season.
