By Jake Klein, NEFJ Correspondent

Trailing 13-7 in the final quarter of Saturday’s CIAC Class L title game, Lou Marinelli’s team needed a kickstart. On a second-and-two hand-off near midfield early in the fourth quarter, Rams running back Hunter Telesco was drilled in the backfield.

Slow to get up, his offensive linemen surrounded him as he lifted himself from the Arute Field turf and lined up for the next play. But before the fourth-and-four snap, whistles blew. From Maloney’s sideline, two medical staff members sprinted onto the field and ushered Telesco onto the New Canaan bench as Marinelli erupted in anger.

“I’ve never seen that before,” the New Canaan coach of 41 years said. “We have people on our sideline to make that same call.”

With Telesco out of the game, the Rams drove inside Maloney’s 10-yard line. Thomas Garcia ran to the three-yard line. Luke Reed ran to the one-yard line. Then Telesco came back in and powered across the goal line to tie the game. The Rams added Hunter Telesco’s field goal to put them ahead for good in a 16-13 win for their 13th state title, all under Marinelli.

“That was an unbelievable game,” Marinelli said. “Maloney gave us all we could handle and more.”

New Canaan opened up a 6-0 lead, just moving the ball enough amid a punt-fest to muster a 41-yard field goal at the end of the first quarter and a 24-yarder with 2:44 left in the second, both from senior captain Ty Groff.

“Thank goodness I have a great field goal kicker,” said Marinelli, whose team won its fourth straight game—and fifth of the season—by 10 points or fewer.

But on the kickoff following Groff’s second three-pointer, Maloney stated its case once again as the most electrifying team in the state. When Marquis Ward raced between the hashes and cut outside to beat the New Canaan pursuers to the front left corner of the end zone, he completed Maloney’s sixth return touchdown of the year and helped the Spartans take a 7-6 lead into halftime.

“That’s what they do. They’re electrifying,” Marinelli said. “We prepared for it and they still got us.”

After the teams traded punts for most of the third—they combined to punt 17 times in the game—Maloney extended its lead when Kyle Valentine found Donte Kelly with a 27-yard bullet pass over the middle to the back of the end zone.

That was all Maloney got before Telesco was abruptly yanked from the lineup and New Canaan’s running game took over to seize the game

“That woke us up a little bit,” said Marinelli of the opponent’s training staff pulling his star.

While it was a good day for New Canaan’s star running back, who ran 30 times for 107 yards and a score, it was the opposite for Maloney’s, Josh Boganski, who followed up last year’s 239-yard, four-touchdown performance in the Class L finals with a 15-carry, 38-yard day.

“It’s obviously disappointing,” said Maloney coach Kevin Frederick, who barked at his team to “remember this feeling” as they waited to collect their runners-up plaque.

The title marked the first since 2016 for the Rams, who won each year from 2006 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2016.

“I’m glad we won,” Marinelli said. “But I’m going to miss this group.”