John Manning has rushed for closed to 1,800 yards for the Windsor football team this season. He had 253 yards alone in the Class MM semifinal win over Newington, along with four touchdowns.
Quarterback AJ Robinson has passed for over 1,600 yards. Senior wide receiver Cashmire Lewis, headed to play at Bowling Green next year, has over 1,000 receiving yards.
But when Manning and Robinson were injured earlier in the season, one of the guys who carried the team (and came up big in Windsor’s season-defining overtime win over then-No. 1 Darien) was senior Shaun Adams.
Adams may not have the big numbers his teammates do on offense, but he has scored 16 touchdowns for top-ranked and undefeated Windsor, which will face No. 6 seed Masuk (9-3) Friday night (6:30 p.m.) for the Class MM championship at Central Connecticut State University’s Arute Field.
As a linebacker, he’s also key to the Warriors’ defensive success. Windsor’s last two games were shutouts – a 50-0 win over Newington and a 20-0 win over Bloomfield, which is playing for the Class S championship Saturday.
“I think Shaun is underestimated, mostly because people don’t look at what Shaun does on defense – he’s our quarterback on defense,” Windsor coach Rob Fleeting said. “He makes every call. He gets everybody lined up the right way and he’s flying to the ball.
“We give him the ball on the other side, and he makes spectacular plays running the ball. Shaun is probably overlooked by people but not by this coaching staff. We don’t know what we would do without Shaun.”
On Sept. 27, Robinson was out with a bruised shoulder for the Alliance game against Darien, which was tied for first then in the Courant’s state coaches poll. Then Manning got hurt in the first quarter. The Warriors started a freshman quarterback but then moved to the wildcat formation when they needed to run down the clock with Adams and Lewis taking over.
Adams ended up with 17 carries for 130 yards and four touchdowns (two in overtime) while Lewis had 24 carries for 160 yards and an interception for an 80-yard touchdown in the 41-35 overtime win.
“We have a lot of tools, and the coaches use us effectively,” Adams said. “Some teams might be planning for John one week, then we have Cash and we have me – we can just keep rotating guys like that in and it’s hard for teams to plan for.”
Windsor moved up to No. 2 that week in the poll and when No. 1 Greenwich lost in Week 6, the Warriors went up to No. 1. Now they are 12-0. The Warriors, who lost to Maloney in the Class L championship in 2021, haven’t won a title since 2014, 10 long years ago.
“We don’t really pay attention to the record,” Adams said. “We just focus on what’s ahead of us. Watch film, how are we going to play the next team, how are we going to win. We’re not feeling any pressure.”