Fairfield Prep defeats Trumbull, returns to CIAC Class LL football final

FAIRFIELD — Six points at halftime Sunday was far from the worst adversity Fairfield Prep’s football team had faced in the past year. The Jesuits’ response was a near-perfect half to propel them back to the CIAC Class LL final.Tyler Smith threw four touchdown passes, and a couple of key defensive plays made big differences in a 42-19 win over Trumbull at Rafferty Stadium.“This half was as complete offensively as we’ve played,” Jesuits coach Keith Hellstern said. “I kept it really simple at halftime. The coaches made corrections, things we saw that we had to address.“(We said) ‘you can’t say where we are right now is the lowest we’ve ever been or having felt. Just pick ourselves up and get after it for each other.’Fairfield Prep’s Jimmy McGrath died in May after being stabbed outside a home in Shelton. Way more mundanely, the Jesuits started the season 1-3. Now fifth-seeded Fairfield Prep (9-3) has won eight in a row. It will play second-seeded Greenwich (10-2), a 42-0 winner over sixth-seeded Glastonbury in the other semifinal, on Saturday at either Rentschler Field or Central Connecticut. Times and sites for the six championship games will be released this week.The Jesuits are ranked 10th in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll; Greenwich is ranked seventh. Fairfield Prep beat the Cardinals in last year’s quarterfinals on the way to the final, where it lost to Darien.Senior receiver Trey Hartnett was at that championship game last year in the stands. Returning to the team this fall, he caught two of Smith’s four touchdown passes on Sunday. “We stuck to the game plan,” Hartnett said. “We knew they’d be tough up front. Tyler played a great game, made the right reads.”Trumbull, which upset top-seeded Southinton in the quarterfinals, finishes 8-4.“Our kids played their rear ends off,” Trumbull coach Marce Petroccio said. “Now we’ve got to the point where hopefully the Trumbull football program is back where it was years ago, and hopefully we’ll be back here someday.” Petroccio said he went to church on Saturday afternoon and asked the priest to say a little prayer for his Eagles. Unfortunately for him, the coach said, the priest was a Prep guy.“We gave them all they could handle in the first half, but we turned the ball over in the second half. They’re a hard team as it is,” Petroccio said. “We had a lot of guys who went down. We had to put some guys in who don’t play much varsity football.“But here’s what I want to say: After all that team’s been through, it’s a credit to their coach, their staff and those kids, what they’ve done this year. It’s just amazing.” Trumbull took a 13-7 lead to halftime. Fairfield Prep took the second-half kickoff to near midfield and scored on a nine-play drive, Smith to Finbar Malloy capping it, to take the lead for good. Patten Royal backed that up with a 33-yard interception return to make it an eight-point game. “He was on that spot the whole game. The quarterback was kind of tipping it off,” Royal said. “I stepped up a little bit and just jumped it.” And though Trumbull marched right back, with Rowan Johnston scoring his second touchdown, Tanner Langis grabbed Johnston’s jersey to keep him from getting the two-point conversion that would’ve tied it. A muffed punt let the Jesuits take a nine-point lead when Smith found Hartnett. He threw one last touchdown pass to Ryan Preisano on the next drive, and Wally Wuchiski capped the scoring with a 12-yard run. Fairfield Prep will play for a title for the seventh time; it has won three CIAC championships, the last in 1988. Player of the Game Fairfield Prep junior quarterback Tyler Smith was 17-for-25 for 221 yards and four touchdowns, three of them in the second half. Quotable “To get back (to the final) is one thing. To get back there after doing some soul-searching in the first quarter of the season, that says a lot, too. It speaks to their character. It speaks to their growing up. It speaks to their buying in.” —Fairfield Prep coach Keith Hellstern mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp Fairfield Prep 42, Trumbull 19 TRUMBULL 7 6 6 0 —19FAIRFIELD PREP 7 0 14 21—42T—Luca Antonio 16 pass Hunter Agosti (Will Zaslow kick)F—Trey Hartnett 24 pass Tyler Smith (Rob Murphy kick)T—Rowan Johnston 3 run (kick failed)F—Finbar Malloy 7 pass Smith (Murphy kick)F—Patten Royal 33 interception return (Murphy kick)T—Johnston 4 run (run failed)F—Hartnett 12 pass Smith (Murphy kick)F—Ryan Preisano 21 pass Smith (Murphy kick)F—Wally Wuchiski 12 run (Murphy kick)Records: Trumbull 8-4; Fairfield Prep 9-3.

Recommended