New Canaan Wins Hard-Fought State Title Over Darien

EAST HARTFORD, CT — Saturday's matchup of traditional football powers ended with a hard-fought battle and a New Canaan High School CIAC Class L state championship for the Rams.

New Canaan defeated the rival Darien High School Blue Wave 28-21 in a back-and-forth affair that turned on a turnover, leading to the winning score and ended with the Rams running out the clock and celebrating their 14th state title.

New Canaan was looking to repeat as state champs, going 9-1 in the regular season before winning its two playoff games en route to the championship game.

Darien, meanwhile, brought an accomplished football pedigree into the championship game as well, going 7-3 before its two playoff wins. The Blue Wave had won eight state championships.

The Blue Wave drew first blood, going up 7-0 when senior captain Briggs McGuckin punched it in from the 3-yard line, which was followed up by an extra point.

The touchdown was set up by a long pass completion from sophomore quarterback Benjamin Rolapp to towering junior receiver Charles Thom.

But New Canaan responded, going the length of the field and scoring themselves as senior running back Luke Reed plunged into the end zone from the 1-yard line. The extra point made it 7-7.

On their first drive of the second quarter, the Rams took the lead after senior Alexander Benevento to a short pass from New Canaan junior quarterback Lawrence Robinson and rumbled about 30 yards into the end zone.

The extra point put the Rams up 14-7.

Later in the second quarter, Darien drove 95 yards — mostly via Robinson's arm and legs — to tie the game at 14-14 as Thom, playing quarterback in a "wildcat" formation, kept the ball and barreled into the end zone for a touchdown.

Later in the third quarter, Rolapp drove Darien downfield into New Canaan territory, culminating in a Green Wave touchdown to make the score 21-14 early in the fourth.

The go-ahead score came when Darien's Thom rumbled in from the 1-yard line on fourth down.

New Canaan then drove the ball deep into Darien territory, aided by a personal foul on Darien for a late hit on Robinson, who was out of bounds after a scramble.

Robinson's crisp passing got them into the endzone, with a 10-yard scoring pass to senior receiver William Langford, who was well-covered but the pass was perfect in the corner of the end zone.

The extra point tied the game 21-21 with about 5 minutes to go in the game.

Then the game's biggest play happened when New Canaan sacked Rolapp, causing him to fumble and turning the ball over to New Canaan on the Blue Wave's 16-yard-line.

With the clock winding down, New Canaan went ahead and won the game when the Rams' Benevento rumbled into the end zone from the 6, giving the Rams a 28-21 lead after the extra point was good.

Darien got the ball with 2 minutes, 33 seconds left in the game and Rolapp went to work looking to redeem himself from his fumble.

But the Blue Wave's 2-minute offense stalled and Darien turned it over on downs to New Canaan, which ran out the clock and celebrated a championship.

For the boxscore and statistics from the CIAC Class L state title game, click on this link.