Windham’s unbeaten traveling band keeps rolling with 66-18 win over Waterford

Windham’s Darwin Melendez Gonzalez (3) stretches the ball over the goal line before Waterford’s Cole Baumgartner (40) can drag him out of bounds in ECC Div. II high school football action Friday, October 28, 2022 on Alumni Turf Field at Waterford high school. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day)Buy Photo Reprints Windham’s Zachary Robinson-Smey (12) celebrates a touchdown with Malachi Fowler (51) in ECC Div. II high school football action Friday, October 28, 2022 on Alumni Turf Field at Waterford high school. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day)Buy Photo Reprints Windham’s Julian Cruz (21) jumps on the back of Waterford’s Brady Sutman (15) in ECC Div. II high school football action Friday, October 28, 2022 on Alumni Turf Field at Waterford high school. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day)Buy Photo Reprints

Waterford — For the seventh time this season, nine including scrimmages, the Windham High School football team played a road game Friday night while its home field undergoes renovations.

Head coach Randall Prose, in particular, doesn’t believe he’s ever won at Waterford, so he had a few extra nerves flowing. His players handled it as close to perfectly as you could possibly expect, however.

Windham scored every time it had the ball expect for taking a knee twice to end the game and sprinted past Waterford 63-18, using 391 rushing yards.

The Whippets are 7-0 overall, 3-0 in Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II headed to Ledyard next week with the division title on the line.

“We’ve been traveling all year. It’s a thing,” Prose said. “The kids are adjusting. It’s exhausting for me; we have to pack everything up, pack it back up. The kids seem to be fine with it.”

Windham led 42-0 at halftime, scoring four times in the second quarter. The Whippets outgained Waterford 298-15 in the first half, with the game beginning the second half with running time due to the score differential.

In the first quarter, Victor Mejia scored on back-to-back carries in the first quarter, getting a 17-yard touchdown run to put Windham on the scoreboard, then scoring on a 3-yard run after an interception by the Whippets’ Malachi Fowler brought the ball back to the Waterford goal line.

In the second quarter, Zack Robinson-Smey threw a 9-yard scoring pass to Travis Mangual Jr. and a 41-yard TD pass to Emanual Vazquez to push the lead to 28-0, Darwin Melendez Gonzalez scored from 27 yards out and Robinson-Smey scored on a 5-yard keeper.

Asael Garcia-Rodriguez led Windham in rushing with seven second-half carries for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Vazquez had seven carries for 94 yards and two touchdowns, Robinson-Smey had three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) and Mejia had six carries for 54 yards and two touchdowns.

Mejia, who suffered a minor injury last week against New London, played only the first quarter for the Whippets as a precaution, Prose said.

Windham kicker Yael Garcia Rodriguez was 9-for-9 on extra points.

Prose said his defense, which limited Waterford to two first downs in the first half — one on a penalty — deserves just as much credit as the offense.

“Maybe they don’t get the respect they deserve but we feel like our defense has been one of the strengths of our team all year,” Prose said. “We love our D. Those kids like to fly to the ball; ‘11 men to the ball,’ that’s our theme. They call themselves ‘the hit squad.’”

“They were fast, they were physical, they played a good game,” Waterford coach Zeth Nolda said of Windham.

If there’s one thing Nolda was pleased with, it’s how Waterford closed out the game despite the lopsided score.

Sophomore running back Brady Sutman had three second-half touchdowns, scoring on runs of 30 and 42 yards and on a 22-yard screen pass from Nate Hynes. Sutman had seven carries for 92 yards rushing and three catches for 39 yards for the Lancers (4-3 overall, 1-2 ECC Division II).

“They showed a lot of heart,” Nolda said.

Waterford finishes the season with three road games, at Killingly, Bacon Academy and East Lyme.

v.fulkerson@theday.com