Berlin Football Team Beats Rocky Hill 38-7

*Editor's Note: The original version of this story contained a quote from Berlin High coach John Capodice that was taken from another newspaper report without attribution. Patch regrets the error in judgment.

What could Rocky Hill say after being manhandled 38-7 to Berlin Friday night, a loss that dropped its season record to 1-1? For Terriers head coach Dave Coyne, there was not much.

“We just made way too many mistakes and you can’t do that,” Coyne said. “I’m not sure why we were so completely out of rhythm especially on offense. We’re all going to have to look over the tape and reexamine this game to see where everything went wrong.”

In every aspect of the game Rocky Hill was outclassed, most notably in the team’s inability to produce any offense. The Terriers were held to just 149 yards of total offense, 139 of which came from one player, sophomore running back Chris Young.

Half of Young’s rushing total came on his 75-yard touchdown late in the first quarter, the only big play of the game for Rocky Hill.

Junior quarterback Troy Syme completed only one pass and only once did the team pick up even more than one first down in a drive. For most of the contest, the Terriers' offense was incomplete passes and runs up the middle that went nowhere.

As poor as Rocky Hill’s performance on offense was, its defense was equally overmatched by the Redcoats. The Terriers fell behind early in first quarter when running back Tom Undercuffler punched in a short touchdown and David Silverman drilled a 34-yard field goal.

Though Young gave them a burst of life with his TD run, it was quickly put out by Berlin’s 28 unanswered points. From the second quarter on, the Redcoats were able to score at will in the air and on the ground.

Quarterback Mitch Williams, who finished 12-18 for 141 yards, tossed two touchdown passes. One was a backbreaking jump ball to Undercuffler in the second quarter and the other was a 25-yard catch by tight end Tyler Bouchard at the start of the second half.

In the running game for Berlin Justin Gombotz earned his team’s final score on a one-yard run in the fourth quarter and Scott McLeod was an absolute workforce, carrying the ball 21 times for 95 yards.

In both the air and on the ground, Rocky Hill was overwhelmed. Berlin looked more athletic and it executed beautifully on many of these drives.

“The defense was on the field all game and couldn’t keep up. They were getting tired,” Coyne said.

"The defense came up big tonight. They say if the offense is down the defense picks us up, if the defense is down the offense picks us up,” Williams said. “It's great to play as a team.”

Rocky Hill’s struggles on offense and defense were heavily caused by its sloppiness with the ball. The team fumbled the ball three times on the night, each time setting up short drives for Berlin and leading to 17 Redcoat points in all.

“We fumbled or did something stupid,” Coyne said of the turnovers. “I think we’re better than the score indicates.”

Though Coyne was frustrated with his team’s performance after the game but, he recognized that was just one loss. Rocky Hill had run into a team that for now is a stronger squad than the Terriers.

“I think Berlin is a great program, everyone knows that. If you beat a team like Berlin you start making plans for December. We’re not making plans for December.”