New London — Nearly all of the first half went by, 20 minutes, 50 seconds of it anyway, and New London was still without a first down.

That's when Danny Maranda found Jelani Lucas down the right sideline for a 77-yard touchdown pass. Maranda quickly added throws of 45 yards to running back Devon Sousa and 33 yards to wide receiver Troy Gray and Sousa, a sophomore, scored on a 1-yard run, as the Whalers made it a hard-fought 14-0 lead at halftime.

Building off that, however, the lead soon ballooned.

Lucas finished with four touchdowns, including a 47-yard interception return, and Maranda threw for 251 yards as New London High School, a Class L playoff team a year ago with a record of 9-3, topped Griswold 43-7 Friday night in the season-opening football game for both teams.

"It was a start," New London coach Duane Maranda said of the victory. "What I'm pleased with is we're 1-0. Griswold came to play. They're tough, tough kids. It took is a little bit to calm down and do our jobs up front. We saw defensive looks we thought we could do some things against, but we needed to be able to execute them.

"I'm happy with the way our offensive line responded to their coaching. It's an experienced group. Last year, we would have continued to struggle."

Lucas made four catches for 128 yards and three touchdowns, scoring on a 43-yard touchdown on New London's first possession of the second half, on which he fought through a pile of defenders, racing to the end zone with his second effort.

Maranda continued to spray the ball to his receivers, hitting Gray for 37 yards down to the 2-yard line, resulting on a 29-yard field goal by Garrett Burdick and a 23-0 lead for the Whalers. Maranda threw an 8-yard fade to Lucas in the right-hand corner of the end zone with 5:47 to go in the third quarter for a 30-7 lead and two plays later Lucas intercepted a deep pass by Griswold's Cole Mileski and returned it for a touchdown.

Jacob Epps scored the Whalers' final touchdown, a 7-yard run, with 1:45 to play.

Meanwhile, New London's defense didn't allow a touchdown, as Griswold's only scoring came on a 94-yard kickoff return by Zach Hankins in the third quarter.

"Jelani had a big, big night," Duane Maranda said. "What I'm really excited about for Jelani is that he was kind of overshadowed the last two years (and now he's not). He was our third guy last year. He's very quiet, extremely quiet."

Lucas, the brother of former Whalers star Jevon Elmore, now at Division I Central Connecticut State University, said before every practice he and Danny Maranda head out to the field to go over their routes.

"We know we can't take anything for granted. We wanted to start off on a positive note," said Lucas, noting last year's 1-2 start for New London, with losses to Hartford Capital (53-14) and Ledyard (21-3). "We came out a lot stronger after the speeches (at halftime) from coach (Juan) Roman, coach (Tommie) Major and coach Maranda. We came out a little overconfident at first."

New London's Sousa finished with 24 carries for 79 yards in his first game as a starter.

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