Cheshire Grounds Out 38-6 Win Over Notre Dame-West Haven Behind 307 Rushing Yards

OriginalGlobal Sportscast deskSep 26, 2026 · 05:14 UTC

The short version

Cheshire beat Notre Dame-West Haven 38-6 on Sept. 25, 2026, at Cheshire High School.
The Rams rushed 53 times for 307 yards and attempted only one pass, with four different players scoring on the ground.
Noel Martinez led Cheshire with 74 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.
Cheshire improved to 3-0; Notre Dame-West Haven fell to 1-2.
The final touchdown capped a 17-play, 95-yard all-rushing drive that took over 10 minutes.

The Rams ran the ball 53 times and threw just once, riding a dominant ground game and time-of-possession edge to stay unbeaten at 3-0 in Southern Connecticut Conference play.

Cheshire stayed unbeaten with a 38-6 win over Notre Dame-West Haven in a Southern Connecticut Conference game on Friday night, Sept. 25, 2026, at Cheshire High School. Facing gusting winds ahead of an approaching Nor'easter that made passing difficult for both teams, the Rams leaned almost entirely on their running game and never trailed.

Cheshire finished with 53 rushing attempts for 307 yards and threw the ball just once, while building roughly a three-to-one advantage in time of possession. The Rams scored the game's first 24 points and led 24-6 at halftime. Four different Cheshire players scored rushing touchdowns.

Senior running back Noel Martinez led the way with 74 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown. He scored from six yards out to finish a nine-play, 65-yard drive into the wind on Cheshire's first possession of the second half, extending the lead to 31-6 with 7:48 left in the third quarter.

Cheshire put the game away with a 17-play, 95-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter that consisted entirely of runs and consumed more than 10 minutes of clock. Mark Rydzy capped that march with a 7-yard touchdown run. After Martinez's score, Notre Dame managed just 19 total yards and two first downs on two third-quarter possessions and did not get the ball again until 1:58 remained.

The Rams jumped ahead early by capitalizing on Notre Dame mistakes. Sophomore Olie Donroe scored his first varsity touchdown on a 9-yard run five plays into the game after a Green Knights fumble. Notre Dame then punted just 8 yards into the wind on 4th-and-21, and Tim Reinard followed with a 38-yard field goal. Another Notre Dame fumble on its third possession set up Michael Chopek's 1-yard touchdown run for a 17-0 lead, and sophomore quarterback Shane Jerome added a 22-yard touchdown run to make it 24-0.

Notre Dame's only score came through the air, on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Wyatt Verrillo to Michael Verdarame Jr., with the extra point blocked. The Green Knights fell to 1-2 on the season. Notre Dame ran only 11 offensive plays in the second half, two of them coming at the end of the fourth quarter.

Cheshire, ranked No. 7 in the GametimeCT Top 10 poll, improved to 3-0 after winning its first two games by a combined three points — a 15-13 victory over West Haven on a late field goal and a 21-20 win over Glastonbury secured by blocking a potential winning field goal.

Cheshire coach Don Drust credited his team's preparation and practice week, noting that the players understood what needed to be fixed after a rocky start to the season. He added that while the team was happy to be 2-0, it was not satisfied, and that the response reflected the group's maturity.