Glastonbury football coach Eric Hennessy, who took a two-week leave of absence after he was exonerated by school officials following an investigation into an “incident” that occurred in September, returned to coach his team last week and the Guardians were able to knock off a previously unbeaten team.
Glastonbury (6-2) beat New Britain 49-21 Friday night behind five touchdown passes from Conner Finnerty, all of them to wide receiver Luke Shannon. New Britain (7-1) is ranked fifth in Class LL, with Glastonbury right behind at sixth in the playoff race.
“It was really amazing to see how well our kids played,” Hennessy said. “We’ve been struggling all year of not being able to put a complete game together. The Maloney game (a 41-27 loss on Sept. 19), we struggled the first half and then the second half we decided to start playing. It was kind of that way all season. We’d put two quarters together and they’d look really good, but we never played four straight quarters of quality football.
“Friday night, we did that. We played to our potential for four quarters and came out with a huge win against a very good football team. We talked before the game about how we know as a team we know how good we are, but we haven’t shown anybody our true potential. Let’s go out and let the rest of Connecticut know we can play some football.”
A parent complaint at a school board meeting in September led school officials to investigate what Glastonbury superintendent of schools Alan Bookman called an “incident” involving Hennessy. Officials investigated and found no basis for the complaint, Bookman said at the time. Hennessy requested a leave of absence after that. At the time, Bookman said, “The coach asked for a temporary leave, and we said ‘Yes,’ and hopefully when whatever is cleared up, he’ll be back soon. We found nothing (in the investigation). He made the decision.”
Hennessy did not wish to talk about the leave of absence or why he took it.
“I just feel like it’s important to move on,” he said. “There’s been enough said about it and it’s not worth really talking about it. It’s sad that it happened. I think everybody involved needs to learn from it and move on. It’s in the past.”
Glastonbury lost to Hall 27-13 on Oct. 25 and beat East Hartford 41-26 the next week.
Hennessy credited his assistant coaches for keeping the team going during his absence.
“I have a great staff,” he said. “I have to pass the credit off to them; they kept the ship afloat for a couple weeks and they did an amazing job getting us ready.
“It was great to be back; it was pretty emotional to be with the kids and stuff.
Here are some of the top performances from last week:
Brady Cersosimo, Conard: Cersosimo completed seven of 14 passes for 307 yards and three touchdowns and had six carries for 106 yards in a
Conner Finnerty, Glastonbury: Finnerty passed for 230 yards and five touchdowns – all to Luke Shannon – in Glastonbury’s 49-21 win over New Britain.
Joey Montalvo, East Catholic: Montalvo had four touchdown receptions, including an 89-yarder and a 71-yarder, in East Catholic’s 48-14 win over Lewis Mills.
Ryan Rafferty, Haddam-Killingworth: Rafferty had two touchdowns, one an 80-yard reception, and had two interceptions in H-K’s 41-6 win over Windsor Locks/Suffield/East Granby.
Jack Rivera, East Hartford: Rivera had 25 carries for 171 yards and two touchdowns as East Hartford beat South Windsor, 28-7.
Emmanuel Sampel, Manchester: Sampel passed for 303 yards, completing 18 of 32 attempts, and two touchdowns in Manchester’s 26-20 victory over Southington.
Luke Shannon, Glastonbury: Shannon had five touchdowns on five receptions for 180 yards in Glastonbury’s 49-21 win over New Britain.