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Amity QB James Laubstein during football action against Shelton in Shelton, Conn. on Friday Nov. 3, 2017.
SHELTON — Shelton had hoped that quarterback Jake Roberts would be healthy enough to play all four quarters against Amity after spraining his knee last week in a win over West Haven. But when it turned out that he wasn’t, the Gaels turned to a very formidable Plan B.
Enter running back Jack Carr, who almost single-handedly carried seventh-ranked Shelton past Amity 27-17 on Friday at Finn Stadium.
“It worked out,” Shelton coach Jeff Roy. “We grinded out a win.”
Roberts tried to gut his way through the first half — he completed 5-of-11 passes for 34 yards — before giving way to sophomore James Curley. Nearly the entire offense, though, ran through Carr, who carried the ball a whopping 36 times for 247 yards. The 180-pound junior also scored two touchdowns on runs of 7 and 3 yards.
“He’s a fantastic kid,” Amity coach Ted Czepiga said. “He’s got a great team around him. They’re just an all-around great program.”
Carr began the game in the Wildcat formation, and ran eight times for 49 yards on a game-opening drive that resulted in an 11-yard touchdown run by Georgio Ghazal.
The Gaels — who were also without junior wide receiver Paul Ferrigno because of an injury — jumped out to a 17-0 lead late in the second quarter on a 7-yard run by Carr. However, Amity (2-6) sliced that lead to 17-10 after James Laubstein connected with Luke Smith for a 35-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.
Shelton (7-1) pushed its lead back to two scores on a 40-yard field goal by Nick Andrade with six seconds to go in the third. Andrade also was good from 31 yards out earlier in the game.
“It seems like we kind of left them hanging around there,” Roy said. “It was scary — we weren’t able to put them away. But give them credit, their kids played hard.”
Carr, who also completed one pass for 10 yards, called the win “crazy.”
“It felt easier [to move the ball] as the game went along,” Carr said. “It felt like they were getting slower and our team was just getting faster.”
Jack Carr, Shelton, RB: The junior did just about everything for the Gaels, rushing 36 times for 247 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He even threw three passes, completing one for 10 yards.
Shelton coach Jeff Roy is hopeful to have both Jake Roberts (sprained knee) and wide receiver Paul Ferrigno (undisclosed “minor” injury) back for next week’s game against Notre Dame-West Haven. “We’ll see,” Roy said. “We’ll evaluate them during the week. … Neither one is a major season-ending injury.”
“There’s no moral victories. The Amity football program has grown. I wouldn’t trade — I had 37 kids in pads tonight — those 37 kids for anybody else in the state. We’re playing great football, we’re playing great football teams. We’re fighting hard.” — Amity coach Ted Czepiga on his team’s third loss of 10 points or fewer this season