On Oct. 1, Valley-Old Lyme football coach Tim King stood on the sidelines at Colfati Field in North Branford with a heavy heart as the rain dripped from the sky. His father, George King, Sr., a World War II veteran and one of the Warriors’ biggest fans, had passed away at age 92 two nights earlier. North Branford gave a moment of silence before the game and read a moving tribute over the loudspeakers to honor the passing of a great man.
“It was an incredibly classy thing to do by North Branford,” Coach King said. “I was surprised and touched. It really meant a lot to me.”
Before the contest, the Valley-Old Lyme players dedicated the game to Coach King and his family. It was an emotional night and the Warriors’ student-athletes wanted to do whatever they could to make sure the man who led them to an undefeated record and their first state championship last year would have a nice moment in such a difficult time. The game didn’t start out the way that Valley hoped as it was down 14-0 at one point, but like all great stories, it was the ending that mattered most. The Warriors rallied to tie the game in the second half to send it to overtime and then tied it again after North Branford recorded the initial score in the first OT. King’s squad then went ahead 27-21 in the second overtime, but the Thunderbirds still had a chance to win the game if they scored a touchdown. On 3rd-down-and-8, Warriors’ linebacker Dan Stetcher stepped in front of a pass inside the 5-yard line to seal the victory with an interception. Valley’s players poured onto the field with a huge win for their coach and their season.
“The kids played out of their minds tonight,” Coach King said. “This is one that will rank up there with some of the best victories of my career, coming back from 14 against a really good North Branford team…It was a heck of a game and these kids never gave up. I’m so proud of them.”
North Branford jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter after scoring on a 12-yard pass. In the second quarter, the T-Birds doubled their lead to 14-0 with an 8-yard touchdown pass and it looked like the Warriors were in for a tough night. Valley regrouped, though, late in the first half after the defense forced a fumble. Driving down the field, quarterback Matt Sapere (7-for-16 for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns) found Gus Cummins (4 catches for 70 yards) in the end zone with a 15-yard strike and, after Jared Roche’s extra point, Valley had trimmed the deficit to 14-7 at the break.
The Warriors took the second half kickoff and returned it to their own 35-yard line. From there, they drove down the field on a time-consuming drive that culminated with a Sapere 2-yard touchdown run. Roche’s kick tied the game at 14-all. Both teams battled back and forth and Valley looked on the verge of pulling ahead as it drove the ball inside the Thunderbirds’ 5, but on the next play, the Warriors fumbled the ball backwards, losing valuable field position. After a penalty and another loss, Valley had to settle for a 37-yard field goal attempt by Roche that came up short on the breezy night.
With the teams knotted at 14, the game went to overtime and, on the first play from the 10-yard line, North Branford scored on a pass and went ahead 21-14 with the extra point. Valley took the ball, needing a score to extend the game. On the second play, Sapere hit Ernest Jean-Pierre on a 6-yard slant to pull within 21-20. Roche knocked the ball through the uprights to force a second overtime.
Possession switched to Valley, which took the ball to the 1 and grabbed the lead on the next play when Sapere crossed the goal line. Roche’s extra point was blocked and Valley now had a 27-21 advantage. North Branford took possession and its first play was an incomplete pass. Next, the Thunderbirds ran a trap play that Roche (17 tackles, 1 sack) snuffed out and stopped for a 2-yard gain. Then on 3rd-and-8, Roche pressured North Branford’s quarterback, who threw toward an open receiver in the flat near the 5 when Stetcher (16 carries for 115 yards) read the play, jumped the route, and picked off the pass to clinch the victory for Valley.
“It was incredible. They played their hearts out,” Coach King said. “The kids gave the game ball to me. All the kids signed it and it will travel with my father. He will take it with him to the next world.”
Coach King’s father was the oldest living former Old Lyme football player dating back to the 1942-’43 season. That year, the team went 4-0. King, Sr., was instrumental in bringing football back to Old Lyme as the school hadn’t fielded a team in nearly 65 years. When his son took the Valley Regional job, King, Sr., urged him to find a way for Old Lyme kids to play football again and join the Warriors as a co-op squad.
“In these days with co-ops, he asked me to see what I could do.” Coach King said. “We talked to the [athletic director] at the time and put it before the state and they approved it. Now, those kids have a chance to play for the first time since 1943.”
By beating North Branford, Valley-Old Lyme won its second-straight game and improved to 2-2 on the season. North Branford dropped to 2-2 with the loss. Up next for the Warriors is a home matchup with Granby Memorial on Friday, Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
