By Matt Spalding

NEFJ Correspondent

Homecoming for the 4-0 Greenwich Cardinals saw a battle of undefeated rivals as the 4-0 Darien Blue Wave came to town. Hampered by cold temperatures and moderate rain on the day, Greenwich pulled out a convincing, 30-14 victory to remain undefeated.

Prior to 2022, it had been 15 years since Greenwich had defeated Darien. That all changed last October, when the Cardinals won 28-20 on the road to end a brutal losing streak. Today, the focus was on creating a new streak, a winning one, of their own.

“This is a new legacy,” said senior running back/cornerback George Vomvolakis, who leads the team in rushing. “This is a new era for Greenwich football.”

The only difference on paper from this year to last is the class in which Darien plays; the Blue Wave moved up to the slightly more competitive Class L for 2023. Greenwich, coming off the Class LL championship, came into the game hungry to continue that stretch, while Darien, a squad that has thrived off of being considered underrated, wanted to show their rivals and haters what they’re truly made of.

At the beginning, it appeared to be another close matchup. In the first five minutes of the game, Greenwich drove inside the Darien 10-yard line, but the Blue Wave defense was able to hold strong and force a turnover on downs.

With the momentum from the stop, Darien was able to orchestrate a long, downfield drive, highlighted by a third down conversion inside their own 10 by 6-foot-8 tight end Kevin Roche.

Once it was 7-0, Greenwich responded almost as quickly as conceivably possible. The Cardinals bolted down the field for six, capped off by quarterback Rocco Grillo keeping it into the end zone.

The next Blue Wave drive was a three and out, and on the first play of Greenwich’s next drive, Grillo found senior Brandon Auguste along the sideline for a 50-yard touchdown. In the span of 60 seconds, Greenwich had flipped the switch, from down 7-0 to up 14-7.

A trend throughout the day was poor special teams for the Blue Wave. Punting was a struggle from the get go, as the punt to set up the Grillo-to-Auguste touchdown put Greenwich inside their own side of the field.

Again, punting in the second quarter, it was near disaster, as the kick was nearly blocked by a vicious Greenwich rush, and the field position was once again stellar. Ian Kim was Greenwich’s star in the first half, as there wasn’t much to be seen in the early going of Vomvolakis, who had been the Cardinals rushing leader through four weeks, although he’d get his fair share later.

“It’s just the game plan, man,” Vomvolakis said. “We knew the o-line was gonna do their jobs, we knew the wide receivers were gonna block for us, so we just stuck to the game plan, and made it happen.”

Kim proved to be the spark the offense needed. Wearing down the clock, and despite persistent rain, Grillo found Jake Stefanowicz in the end zone for another Cardinal touchdown. The special teams woes went both ways however, as the Greenwich extra point went wide left and short. The first half closed with a score of 20-7, Greenwich leading Darien.

As the second half began, the rain stayed steady, as did the Greenwich defense. After their first drive of the game, they held Darien to zero points, and continued to do so.

Another three and out led to another Greenwich offensive possession. This one wasn’t quite as fruitful as previous ones, however, as the Cardinals found themselves in a fourth and 1 situation in no man’s land. Darien excused them with a brutal mistake, jumping offsides and giving the Cardinals an automatic first down. Despite the gift, Greenwich was only able to get a field goal, making the score 23-7.

After another quick defensive stop, it was finally Vomvolakis’ time to shine. The Greenwich star running back took the ball, cut to the outside, and ran over 50 yards for another Cardinals touchdown. Vomvolakis jumped into the gymnastics crash pad next to the end zone in celebration, and at that point the game seemed to be out of reach at 30-7. After the game, Vomvolakis spoke of how important this matchup was to his team.

“I remember the 2019 game where we lost to them here, and we wanted to get revenge, you know?” said Vomvolakis.

That message certainly seemed to resonate with the Cardinals, as they refused to get complacent in the fourth quarter. As the rain softened, offense became easier to come by, but the defense held strong, only conceding one score in the entire period. Vomvolakis, playing with an ankle injury, oozed confidence post-game, a feeling you could sense all across the field as Cardinals players celebrated a terrific homecoming victory.

“We didn’t care that we beat them last year, we wanted to beat them again.” Vomvolakis said. “And that’s exactly what we did today.”

Greenwich moves to 5-0, and will travel to Trumbull next Friday at 7 pm. Darien returns home for a matchup with Fairfield Ludlowe, where they’ll attempt to get back on track after a difficult road loss.