Whips bring optimistic approach into showdown at Waterford
Sep. 17—Please forgive Windham High football coach Randall Prose if he was sporting a smile even as he walked his Whips off Ferrigno Field and back to the school's locker room last Friday night.
Windham had just been nipped by Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II rival Woodstock Academy, 40- 27, a misleading set of numbers given the nature of how the final few minutes played out.
Windham maintained a 27- 26 lead when junior running back Dustin Solensky rumbled into the end zone with 3: 53 remaining, but the Centaurs roared back thanks to quarterback Ethan Davis, who finished off a 10-play, 63-yard drive with a 1- yard TD run with 47 ticks left on the clock, then added the 2- point conversion for a 34- 27 advantage.
Davis then punctuated the victory when he dropped back into coverage as the Whips looked to mount a comeback, picked off a pass and returned the interception 25 yards for some window-dressing on those final numbers.
In spite of the loss, Prose saw enough positives from his Whips to bring a positive attitude into the post- game huddle.
"I tried telling them, 'Hey, you're a good football team'," Prose said of what he told his players after their season opener didn't quite pan out the way they hoped it would.
" I think we were more mentally tired than physically tired near the end of the game, and that's something we'll look to work on and correct.
And Prose was also smiling because he knows that another alternative to losing a game involves something much more painful.
" Hey, it was just great that we were playing football again," said Prose, who had not led his Whips on the gridiron since they beat Montville at home on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Day, 24-12, back in 2019 due to COVID-19.
"For me, it was a really rough two years not to have football in my life and I missed it so much that so many of our players weren't able to go out the way we all would have liked."
And Prose also is wearing a smile these days because he knows he has a considerable amount of talent at his disposal entering tonight's 6: 30 p.m. ECC Division II showdown at Waterford.
The Lancers fell to No. 10 stateranked Killingly by a 52- 14 margin in their own season opener last weekend but boast the kind of firepower necessary to bounce back quickly.
" Waterford is talented. They played Killingly tough. Killingly is always a powerhouse and they hung with them for quite a while.
" Hey, we're going to go out there and come out swinging."
The Whips came out swinging on offense in their opener with senior dual threat Jayden Villafane scor-
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ing on the ground (7 carries, 76 yards, 38-yard TD run) and air ( 34- yard TD catch), Solensky adding 33 rushing yards on 10 carries, including his late go- ahead TD run, with junior quarterback Zachary Robinson-Smey (9 rushes, 53 yards) contributing a 1-yard TD run along with his touchdown pass to Villafane.
Windham will need to keep humming on offense and turn up the intensity and focus on defense to maintain hopes of leaving Waterford with a win.
" You can't give up the big play and that's what happened against Woodstock," said Prose. " Mental mistakes, missed tackles can't happen. We need 11 guys rushing to the ball and making those tackles.
" We've worked really hard at the end of practice this week ending plays and running plays when they're tired. They're like, ' Coach, we're tired' and we just tell them ' That's the point'."
