Injury and JV game update

While I'll have more info when I head to practice this week but the early word on the injured Yale players are:

Quarterback Patrick Witt had a bruised hand but should be OK.
Center Jake Koury has a strained MCL and figures to miss some time but the length of his absence is yet to be determined.
Defensive end Matt Battaglia suffered a knee cap dislocation but his knee injury is likely not as serious as Koury's.

Now for Yale's JV opener against Milford Academy, the final score was 39-20 in favor of Milford Academy who returned two interceptions for touchdowns, intercepted five passes and recovered a fumble. Milford Academy also got a rare defensive two-point conversion when Milford Academy blocked an extra point and what followed was a bizarre series of events ending with the Falcons' William Hayes intercepting a pass from kicker Philippe Panico and racing down the Milford Academy sideline to make it 23-20. Panico put in a request with me on the sidelines not to have his Garo Yepremian moment (to those younger readers, I suggest doing a google search on Garo Yepremian and Super Bowl VII) but that play was too bizarre not to make mention of it, sorry Philippe. On the positive side, it was a pretty good field across the field unlike Yepremian's bumbling pass attempt.

The other unusual aspect of the game was the way Yale rotated quarterbacks on a series by series basis - all six of them. It was a far cry from a year ago when quarterback turned defensive back Bryan Farris moved back to quarterback just so Yale would have two QBs for the JV games.

The six quarterbacks were intercepted four times and tailback Elijah Thomas also threw an interception on a halfback option. They also threw three scoring passes as Kerr Taubler hooked up with McConnell Smith on a 17-yard touchdown, Henry Furman connected with Trevor Peterson on a 20-yard TD and John Whitelaw hit Cameron Sandquist for a 44-yard score.

If I had to pick Yale MVPs from the game, my picks would be Elijah Thomas (148 yards on 23 carries), linebacker Ben Ashcraft 11 tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery and defensive end Dylan Drake who had eight tackles, a sack, another tackle for a loss and had another sack wiped out when Yale accepted a holding penalty. Other defensive stats (pretty unofficial since I was the one keeping them) worth mentioning were Brian Leffler and Josh Grizzard had seven tackles each while Scott Williams, Ryan Falbo and Kyle Aberton had five tackles each.

Milford Academy also benefitted from two failed Yale onsides kicks including one former Hyde star Andrew Greene returned 40 yards for a touchdown.

I spoke with Greene after the game about his touchdown and his decision to attend Milford Academy which could land him a scholarship with a BCS school.

"It was great to come to my hometown and be able to play one last time here and be able to make a big play," Greene said.

"It has been going pretty good. I am playing a new position out there, a safety but overall I have been picking it up prety fast and I have been getting some pretty good looks (from colleges). Temple, Pitt or Rutgers (are the schools he would like to attend) but I am waiting to see what happens. I don't have anything written in stone just yet.

"I knew when I was in high school that I wasn't going to be a linebacker all my life so when I got here, they showed me different coverages. This has given me an opportunity to show my athleticism."

Now completely off the subject, Yale lost a heartbreaking 23-20 game at Albany on Saturday but I'll give credit to junior defensive tackle Jake Stoller for graciously agreeing to pose for a photo with a couple of my friend Ann's sons after the game. Stoller is one of the most intense players on the Yale team and I am sure he took the defeat pretty hard as I would imagine nearly every Yale player did but it was a class move by Stoller to put his disappointment aside and make the day of the three kids who were in the picture with him.