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Overview of the 2022 Football Season

Despite many doubts, the Woodland Hawks Football team has bounced back harder than ever before.

Despite many changes in the coaching staff, the Hawks seem to have finally found their guys. The new coaches are new head coach Joe Lato and new assistant coaches Dennis Wanzie, Brandon Williams, Mark Pulkkinen, Thomas Juliano, and Matt Smith. This  was the first season these great coaches came together on one team. They plan on sticking with each other.

“I really like the new additions to the staff. It is a good mix of youth and experience,” said Coach Lato.

Along with the impressive coaching staff, senior captains Michael Strachan, Darren Gasparri, and Nate Cook took the reins of the team, on and off the field. Facing the challenge of many coaching changes and shortage of staffing, Gasparri, Strachan, and Cook kept the team under control. With their leadership skills, cooperation, and perseverance, they worked through any problem that came their way. This is what set the team up for greatness this season.

After the loss before Thanksgiving to their rival Seymour, the Hawks were knocked out of the playoffs, but all of the upcoming seniors knew that they had to bounce back.

It is an understatement to say they did.

The Hawks started the season off strong with a 38-6 win over next door neighbors, Oxford, which got the ball rolling.

Going into the next game with intensity and momentum, the Hawks played former state contender, Ansonia. They played their hearts out but came short at the end of the fourth quarter which was only a minor setback for the team.

After overcoming this loss, the team went on a six game winning streak with three of those games having the defense shut the other teams out. This proved a lot to the community and displayed all of the hard work and dedication they put in throughout the offseason.

These wins set the team up for a final blowout win against rivals Seymour 31-7 to give the Hawks a home playoff game against the additional Class S team, the East Catholic Eagles.

The Hawks blew the Eagles out of the water with a 35-0 shutdown win sending the Hawks to the state semifinals for another rematch against the Ansonia Chargers. The Hawks were ready for the long awaited rematch against the chargers but came just short in the fourth quarter to conclude an amazing comeback season for the Hawks.

After talking to Coach Lato, he has large aspirations for the off season and for the upcoming 2023 season. He plans to focus on progress during the offseason and try to enhance the performance of his players in all ways possible. He hopes to work on getting his players and coaches to work efficiently during the off-season to better prepare them for the next season.

“We need to focus on our core values,” Lato stated.

This offseason should be huge for the Hawks as they look to repeat the quality of their gameplay and see what the team is made of.

Erik Pulkkinen

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