The North Haven eighth grade team played two games this past week and won them both to grab the fourth and final position in this year's SYFC Championship playoffs. They will face Madison this weekend in the semi finals.

On Wednesday, the eighth grade Indians secured a tie break advantage by defeating Cheshire. Evan Manameit fired a 40-yard touchdown pass to Michael Halloran in the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead. Cheshire scored right before the half and made their kick to go up 8-6.

The Indians took the second half kickoff and moved down to the Rams' five-yard-line with some impressive runs by Ethan Suraci and Christian Black, but then turned the ball over on downs. On Cheshire's first play from scrimmage, they fumbled it away and the Indians recovered. Suraci took the first snap and punched it in through the right side from 10 yards out. Patrick Mikos drained the two-point kick through the uprights to put North Haven up 14-8, which ended up being the final score.

On Tuesday, the North Haven eighth graders defeated Branford to finish the season at 5-3. The game remained scoreless until halftime, but the Indians broke through in the third quarter, scoring a pair of long touchdowns wrapped around a Branford score to open up a 14-6 lead.

The first score came on a 4th down play when Ethan Suraci broke through the line and ran 40 yards before fumbling forward into the end zone. Michael Siwek covered it up for a touchdown and Patrick Mikos kicked the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead. The second touchdown was also scored by Suraci on a 48 yard run on 4th down to make the score 14-6.

Starting the 4th quarter, John Tondalo's kick sailed over the first row of Hornets and rolled untouched along the far sideline, before the Indians covered it up to retain possession. North Haven then pounded the ball down, alternating runs by Christian Black and Suraci before Black went spinning across the goal line for a touchdown. Black fumbled at the goal line, and it was again recovered by Michael Siwek in the end zone, but the ball was already ruled across the line. Patrick Mikos kicked another PAT to put North Haven up 22-6 to complete the scoring.

North Haven seventh graders were defeated by Cheshire in the mud, 33-13. Jay Jones had a pair of touchdown runs of over 90 yards each. Matt Coppolla and Kyle Aurora played well on Offense and Dominic Fusco and Colin Ciszewski had good games on the defensive side of the ball.

The fifth grade team lost a close battle to an undefeated Madison B squad 6-0. The Indians held the Madison squad scoreless until the 3rd quarter when the Tigers were able to punch it in. The rest of the game both teams traded possessions with both defenses playing very well in adverse conditions. The Indians were led on defense by Bowen Brennan, Mike Gagliardi, Henry Pearson, and Preston Young. The team will play the same Madison team in the first game of the championship playoffs.

The 6th grade Indians played on the cold windy turf at Madison high school and came away with a 26-0 victory against the always tough Madison Tigers. The 6th grade claimed the number one seed and home field advantage in the playoffs. It was a tremendous team effort. North Haven will be home next week for round one of the playoffs against Clinton.

- Submitted by Ed Tantorski