Blue Knights Football Loses New Britain Battle
- Dan Fappiano
- Oct 12
- 5 min read

Southington Football head coach Rob Levesque knows the Blue Knights are a strong team with untapped potential. Still, he isn’t sugarcoating Southington’s performance Friday night when they suffered a crushing 42-14 loss at the hands of the New Britain Golden Hurricanes. Their opponents played physically and were able to capitalize on the Blue Knights’ many self-inflicted wounds.
“We had some composure issues,” Levesque said. “Special teams breakdowns, offensive, defensive. It all happened at the same time. It was a full moon tonight. We’re better than that, we can execute better than that.”

Southington Clashes With New Britain
New Britain opened the scoring with a long first quarter drive, punctuated by a 12-yard touchdown run with 5:10 remaining that led to their taking a 7-0 lead. Southington attempted to answer, but a pass from sophomore quarterback Jacoby Roman slipped through the receiver’s hands and was intercepted by New Britain.

In response, the Blue Knights brought some firepower on defense. With eight minutes left in the second quarter, junior Connor Orange made a crucial sack deep in Golden Hurricanes territory. However, just over 30 seconds of game time later, Roman threw his second interception of the night, giving the ball back to New Britain.
The Hurricanes made the most of their newfound opportunity, scoring on a one-yard touchdown run. Southington managed to block the extra point, keeping the game at 13-0 with 3:49 remaining.
On their very next possession, the Blue Knights fumbled the ball back into New Britain’s hands. The Southington defense then forced a fumble of their own to regain possession.
Building on that momentum, the Blue Knights managed to strike on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Roman to senior Jaxiel Rivera. The extra point from junior Jacob Carrier cut the lead to 13-7 with 1:08 remaining in the half.
Yet New Britain wasn’t done. They hit a long screen pass with 41 seconds left, then converted a fourth-and-10. With just five seconds remaining in the half, the Golden Hurricanes completed a 23-yard touchdown pass. While the Blue Knights stopped the two-point conversion, New Britain held a 19-7 lead at the break. They had gained 246 total yards compared to Southington’s 110.
The Blue Knights started the second half strong when Rivera intercepted a pass with 9:41 remaining in the quarter. However, from that point on it was all New Britain. A four-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion made the score 27-7 with just under five minutes remaining in the third.
Southington would then turn the ball over on downs before New Britain scored on a 48-yard touchdown run. The ensuing kickoff was muffed by the Blue Knights for a safety, which gave the Golden Hurricanes a 35-7 lead with 1:04 remaining in the quarter.
New Britain would score one last time on a nine-yard touchdown run that increased their lead to 42-7. Southington’s Roman did manage to find senior Rosco Cook for a 22-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth. But even with Carrier’s extra point, the Blue Knights fell 42-14.
In the loss, Roman completed 21-of-30 passes for 222 yards. Southington ran for 32 yards total with senior Lonnie Green as the lead back. Junior Walker Mierzejewski led the way receiving with six grabs for 87 yards.
Coach Levesque summed up the game thus: “Turnovers on top of it all, it obviously wasn’t our night,” Levesque said. “You make mistakes like that with a good team who’s physical, they’re going to make you pay. And they did.”


Southington Battles Through Injuries
With 5:48 remaining in the third quarter, play abruptly stopped. Junior Benjamin Kielbowicz was hit hard while trying to make an interception and stayed on the ground. Eventually, he was placed on a stretcher and left the game in an ambulance.
It was a scary moment as players from both teams stayed on one knee. Levesque later confirmed that Kielbowicz came to and was responsive.
“He took a glancing blow,” Levesque said. “Two guys crossing, self-inflicted wound. He hit pretty hard on the ground and it looked like he lost consciousness for a little bit. But he came to and he was positive. It’s just precautionary stuff. We’re optimistic.”
The junior’s injury wasn’t the only ailment Southington was dealing with on Friday. Starting quarterback junior Luke Prozzo and starting running back junior Nicholas Andrews were both out for a second straight game. Players like Roman and Green had to step up in their absence.
Levesque wants everyone on the Blue Knights to be ready to play when their name is called. The gameplan put in place remains the same and whoever is on the gridiron must be prepared to compete, no matter the situation.
“We don’t care if we’re down people. The next guy up,” Levesque said. “Obviously it hurts you when your starting quarterback and running back are not in the game. But we still have a gameplan. We expect to be successful at executing that.”
Southington Eyes Improvement Before Manchester Matchup
Now 2-3 on the year, Southington will next take on Manchester away on October 24 before ending the regular season with four straight home games. As they look to bounce back, one point of stress will be physicality.
When it comes to the run game, New Britain’s Jayden Allen gained 225 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Moving forward, Levesque wants his team to be more physical up front and control the line of scrimmage.
“They were more physical than us tonight. We’ve got to decide how we want to approach things,” Levesque said. “When they wanted to run the ball down hill, they ran down hill. They were a little more physical at the point of attack tonight. Unfortunately, we paid for it.”
For the Blue Knights, there have been flashes of brilliance. However, the key for Levesque is putting it all together. He knows how strong Southington could be. Once Southington is able to realize their potential, the wins will come.
But at least for now, the head coach’s focus is on Manchester.
“1-0 every week. Obviously that hasn’t happened, but that has to be the mentality,” Levesque said of the message entering their Manchester matchup. “The overall challenge is getting these kids to see and play to their potential. They’re a good team, but I’m not going to say we played to our potential by any stretch of the imagination. That’s what every coach and I have to figure out.”
Here is a sample of other photos taken at the game:



For more Blue Knight football photographs visit NMR Photography.