Greenwich Opens Season with Win Over Fairfield Prep

The Greenwich Football season started off on the right foot on September 12, when the Cardinals hosted the Fairfield Prep Jesuits at Cardinal Stadium. The season prior, the 11-2 Cardinals defeated New Haven for the Class LL State Championship, hoisting the school’s 13th state championship (3rd in the past 6 seasons), and came into this season with high hopes.

The reigning state champions came into the season with a revamped roster, highlighted by sophomore quarterback Phil Tarantino. In the first start of his young career, Tarantino threw for 170 yards, with his 12 passes reeled in by 5 different receivers. Senior wide receiver Hudson Squires led this group with 6 catches for 82 yards and 2 touchdowns. “I was nervous in the beginning,” he said on the game. “But after that first drive, I thought we really settled in. And once we scored, I knew it was going to be a good game.”

On the ground, captain and running back Hector Lopez continued the momentum from last year’s record-breaking season, picking up 124 yards on 25 carries. Although he did not get into the end zone during the game, his impact was still felt, forcing the Prep defense to adjust which allowed Tarantino to tear them apart through the air.

“[Senior running back Hector Lopez] has worked so darn hard, he’s been such a good leader, such a good captain, I’m so happy it’s paid off for him tonight in Week 1,” said head coach Anthony Morello 05’, now in his 13th season with Greenwich. “I know he was over 100 yards tonight and he’s going to credit his offense line. A lot of those yards were hustle yards, extra yards after contact. He was spinning and juking and lowering his shoulder at times. He runs with a lot of authority.” 

However, the stellar Greenwich offense was still outshone by the performance of the defense. The team picked up a staggering 8 sacks and 6 tackles for loss, led by Junior linebacker Justin Carroll with 3 and 1 respectively, in the first game of his second varsity season. Junior Colin Suvansri also picked up an interception, capping off a top-tier game on both sides.

Greenwich got on the board somewhat slowly, scoring their first touchdown on a pass to Squires in the back corner of the end zone with 4:28 remaining in the first quarter, but ramped it up beyond that. Tarantino threw a second touchdown to Mark Golden with 1:07 to play in the opening period, taking that lead to the end of the quarter. Prep struck back in the second quarter, taking just under 6 minutes to score, but Greenwich fired back fast with a 3-yard touchdown run from senior running back/linebacker Jack Kelly, pushing the lead to 21-7 at halftime.

The second half started with Fairfield quarterback Robert Manning throwing a quick touchdown to cut the lead to 7, but little did they know that it would be the last score for Prep. Greenwich did not have the same misfortune, with Tarantino connecting with Squires a second time to make the lead 28-14 at the end of the third quarter. After that, the game began to slow down, with the only score of the fourth quarter being a field goal from kicker Michael Galano.

Last season, Lopez ran for a team-record 1,218 yards and 15 touchdowns. His performance on Friday was not the only piece of history made that day, as the first ever female varsity football player for Greenwich took the field. Lauren Judge took up the position of holder on field goals and kicks, putting her name into the books of a historic team.

After this, Greenwich will play host to out-of-conference foe Norwalk before going on the road until October.