Terriers Demolish Eagles

Slash and burn. Power and brute force.

However, one wants to categorize the Rocky Hill backfield duo of Chris Young and Alex DeNardo, they cannot deny their sheer effectiveness. Young and DeNardo are the focal points of Rocky Hill’s wing offense and they again led the way in the team’s decisive 38-15 victory over East Catholic-Manchester at home Friday night. The win improved Rocky Hill’s record to 2-1, while East Catholic fell to 0-3.

Chris Young, a sophomore, led the rushing attack with 170 yards and three touchdowns scored on 16 carries, while also earning 39 yards through the air. With his exceptional speed and athleticism, Young constantly burst through the East Catholic defense for large chunks of yardage.

He scored in each of the first three quarters and ran for a back-breaking 19 yard touchdown with six minutes left in the third quarter that put the game away for the Terriers.

DeNardo matched his teammate carry for carry. The junior picked up 156 yards on 20 carries and had the highlight of the night on a beautiful 75 yard TD run from scrimmage to begin Rocky Hill’s night on offense.

Young and DeNardo’s contrasting games with one relying on finesse and pure athleticism and the other on a hardness and power worked perfectly together against the Eagles.

If Rocky Hill’s offensive line, which Young credited for his success, is able to play up to the level it did on Friday every week, than the Terriers will reach their full potential as the smash mouth unit of head coach David Coyne’s dreams.

Of course, the work of Rocky Hill’s backfield and offensive line wouldn’t have meant squat if the defense did not perform so well. A week after allowing 38 points to Berlin in the team’s home opener the Terriers D limited East Catholic to 194 yards of total offense.

The Terriers denied their opponent any offensive momentum and only twice did East Catholic earn more than one first down on a drive. Quarterback Jacob Shippee, who was starting due to injury, was intercepted twice by Shane Steiman and Andrew Jenkelunas and only completed four of 14 passes for 45 total yards.

Shippee never looked comfortable behind center, as he was pressured frequently and forced to throw on the run seemingly every pass play. Shippee overthrew his receivers a number of times and the Eagles receivers also dropped catchable passes, killing the momentum of drives.

Combine the defense’s harassment of Shippee with the fact that it never allowed a rushing play longer than 11 yards and Rocky Hill had put together the all-around performance it was searching for.     

“I was really happy with how we played tonight,” Dave Coyne said. “We needed a victory after last week, and our guys came together and gave a total team effort. We did an excellent job of capitalizing on East Catholic’s mistakes.”

Going into Friday’s game Rocky Hill was searching for redemption, and they found it. Defeating East Catholic at home by that margin of victory demonstrates that with hard work, focus and a little bit of luck, the Terriers can be a hard-nosed squad that is capable of beating anyone in the CCC.

The aftermath of the game was certainly a time to celebrate. But, Coyne knows that there is constantly work to be done.

“This is an important win that will help our confidence,” he said. “But we have a really good team in Platt coming next week that is very fast. We’re going to focus on that game and on getting better.”

Rocky Hill returns to playing on the road against Platt-Meriden next Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Editor's Note: Did you attend the game? Send us your pictures! Email us at Joseph.Wenzel@Patch.com.