Derby High School football loses their first home game

By Sophia Brunetti ’23 & Azariah Smith ’23

On Sept. 16, 2022, Derby High School had its first home football game against Waterbury Career Academy, losing 55-12. Despite the disappointment of the loss, they had their first two touchdowns of the season. 

To start off the football season, the student section was filled with positive energy. A lot of students and family were thrilled to watch the game. Since this was the first home game of the season, the excitement was through the roof. Students wore red in support of the team, and the topic of every conversation seemed to be the game. 

Reacting to the result of the game, Derby High School health teacher and assistant coach Matthew Nicolari stated, “I feel like the scoreboard doesn’t show how well our boys played if you measure how much better we played from our first game ‘till then. There were big improvements and I still think they’re gonna keep improving, because it’s a long season we’ve got eight more games left, and it’s gonna keep getting better.” 

Nicolari describes the team overall as “very young and very inexperienced, and a lot of the kids are playing football for the very first time, so we’re teaching a lot of basics, but one of our greatest strengths is they are very athletic. They have a lot of speed, a lot of them are very good at all sports they play, like baseball and track and all those other sports and we have to translate that into football success.” 

Running back and wide receiver Bryan McLean ‘24 scored the team two touchdowns. These two touchdowns consisted of a rushing touchdown and a kick-return touchdown. He also has over 100 rushing yards, 2 sacks, and multiple tackles over the last few games. 

Other players such as running back Theodore “T.J.” Orazietti, running back and quarterback Carlos Allen, and defensive tackle Giovanni “Gio” Vicens also have gotten multiple tackles over the last few games.

 Coach Nicolari says, “I would really like us to score more points and to stop the other team from scoring.” By the end of the season, Derby Red Raiders want to see improvements.