NEW BRITAIN — Nothing seemed to work, neither Northwest Catholic-West Hartford nor Ansonia could breach the goal line as the fourth quarter wore on and the temperatures continued to drop.
Finally, Northwest Catholic was faced with a 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line and a decision. A third-down “tush-push” had failed to shove the big Ansonia pile and get quarterback Vincent Burbank into the end zone. They could try another run, or let Burbank try a short field goal to end the scoreless drought.
“The coaches were thinking about what to call (during a timeout),” coach Mike Lenz said, “and Vinny was the one who actually said, ‘why don’t we run double slants?’ They were kind of over-undering Kayden Davis, our All-State, and Patrick Knorr came open, It was actually a great call by Vinny.”
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Burbank, the senior who runs, throws, kicks, punts and plays defense for the Lions (11-1), has played enough solid football for enough seasons for the coaches to put the game and the season in his hands. He spotted the open receiver, and slung it to Knorr, slanting left to right, for the first touchdown of the game with 8:54 left.
“It was a mutual suggestion,” Burbank said. “We got stopped on the sneak, so I just thought we could throw a nice quick one. (Knorr’s) had great hands all year.”
That broke the ice dam and two more touchdowns flowed before Northwest Catholic left Veterans Stadium with a 21-0 victory over Ansonia, defending champ, and advanced to the CIAC Class S championship game to face Sheehan-Wallingford on Saturday.
“We’ve been underdogs all four years of my high school career,” Burbank said. “Everybody would say, ‘Northwest isn’t that great, they don’t have good history.’ We came in wanting to change that. We had a fire in our hearts for Ansonia, we wanted to beat them real bad, get to the state championship. We’re going to get prepared to go try to win the school’s first state championship.”
Ansonia (8-4) has won 22 state championships. Northwest will be looking for its first; the Lions’ only other appearance in a final a 21-0 loss to Hyde in Class S in 2009.
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“It’s just a mindset,” said Lenz, who returned to his alma mater to coach in 2018. “We came out today, I was talking to the guys, and they were like, ‘it’s not cold, this is good hitting weather.’ So that gives you a feel for what the mentality of our guys is.”
Burbank’s apparent 76-yard touchdown run was nullified by a holding penalty in the second quarter. Ansonia reached the NWC 1-yard line in the first half, but two holding penalties and a false start pushed them back. This is the kind of game it was. Northwest began possessions on the Ansonia 21-yard line late in the first half and 33-yard line early in the second, but could not score.
After the Burbank-to-Knorr connection, capping a 47-yard drive, Northwest made a quick stop and got the ball back with good field position. This time, Burbank hit Davis for a 30-yard catch-and-run for another TD. The Lions’ defense dominated the second half. Knorr made an interception on that side, and returned it deep into Ansonia territory, setting up Bryce Jones’ 1-yard touchdown to put the game out of reach.
“We had tremendous defensive effort today,” Davis said. “We’re an undersized defense, but we play hard, 150 percent every single play. Our defense were making plays all over the field, especially our linebacker Patrick Knorr. We’ve been hungry all season, since July, and we just went at it.”
Sheehan (10-2), which lost the Class SS final to Killingly last year, advanced through these semifinals with a 41-20 win over Woodland.