Whalers remain unbeaten in ECC Division I, top Falcons 34-7

Groton — After a bumpy start to the season, New London has settled into a winning groove.The Whalers are hard to beat right now.Just ask Fitch.New London's explosive offense and tough defense turned a tight football game Saturday into a lopsided 34-7 win in Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I action at Dorr Field.The Whalers have won four straight since opening the season 1-3. During their unbeaten stretch, they've averaged 47 points and allowed just 8.5 points.At 5-3 overall, they remain in the hunt for a state tournament berth. They're 2-0 in Division I play. Fitch fell to 4-4, 2-2.What's behind the turnaround?"Our talent has been there the whole time," New London coach Bobby Sanchez said. "We were young on defense. We lost nine starters from last year. … We lost some huge parts of our defense. And I think those first couple of games, we were just finding ourselves defensively and now we found ourselves. We got healthy."... Now we've got our personnel down and we're more disciplined on defense. We've always been a juggernaut on offense."Senior quarterback Jack Philistin utilized the wealth of talent at his disposal. Philistin completed 10 of 17 passes for 210 yards and two touchdown passes, both long-distance strikes to sophomore Cayden Simonds Gaskin for 63 and 64 yards. Simonds Gaskin finished with four catches for 159 yards.Running behind a strong offensive line, senior Demitrias Fletcher piled up 119 yards and had touchdown scampers of 5, 6 and 20 yards."We have a lot of weapons on this team, especially on the offensive side," Philistin said. "We base our game on 50-50 run-pass. And with the depth we have at running back and receiver, it's hard to stop us. Plus, me."New London carried a 14-0 lead into halftime and only led by seven after Fitch quarterback Porter Carter broke free for a 33-yard touchdown run with 5 minutes, 41 seconds left in the third quarter.On the ensuing kickoff, New London fumbled the ball away, setting up Fitch at the Whaler 14-yard line.That's when New London's defense made one of the game's biggest plays, forcing a fumble and recovering it at the 3."We're an emotional team," Sanchez said. "We have highs and lows, just like any other high school team. But we've been preaching next play mentality. … The execution was there. And you can't have execution if you're worried about the last play."New London went on to score the game's final 20 points.The back-breaking touchdown came with nine minutes left in the game after the Whalers recovered yet another Fitch fumble.Philistin unleashed a deep pass to a well-covered Simonds Gaskin down the left sideline. Simonds Gaskin adjusted to the throw, caught the pass and completed the electrifying 64-yard scoring play for a 20-7 edge."All I thought about was to get the touchdown for my team," Simonds Gaskin said.Philistin wasn't surprised that Simonds Gaskin made the catch."If it's one-on-one, that's Cayden's ball," Philistin said. "I have 100% faith in him."Mistakes cost the Falcons, who lost three fumbles in Whalers territory. Two turnovers ended up leading to New London touchdowns."Turnovers killed us," Fitch coach Mike Ellis said. "We had plenty of opportunities to score and we did not score. When we got it to 14-7, kicked off, they fumbled it, and we had the ball, we had to put it in right there and tie the game or take the lead. And that was huge."They deserved to win and we didn't play well enough to win."New London carries a great deal of confidence into next Friday's ECC Division I showdown at first-place Killingly.The Whalers are eager to test themselves against the conference's best team."When I took this job, we used to scrimmage them when I was at Valley and we would see their talent," Sanchez said. "Killingly is tops in the conference. If you're going to be a great team, you've got to beat great teams. We're excited for the opportunity. And we've given ourselves the opportunity."g.keefe@theday.com