regular season play. West Haven took a 3-1 loss. Center — Ben Proano competes for the Blue Devils in their opening meet. Right — Gulianna Ruggerio goes up for the spike against Amistad, which the Lady Devils won, 3-0.
By Mike Madera
Special to the Voice
Cheshire senior kicker Tim Reinhard was feeling good in warm-ups, drilling kicks through the uprights from 50 yards away. Reinhard felt he would get his opportunity during the game.
Reinhard came through, capping a furious second half rally by the Rams, when he nailed a 44-yard field goal with 1 minute, 55 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to lift Cheshire to a 15-13 victory over West Haven in a Southern Connecticut Conference contest at Ken Strong Stadium in West Haven Friday evening.
After trailing 13-0 at the half and accumulating less than 20 yards of offense in the first half, Cheshire turned the game around in the third quarter by taking advantage of two West Haven miscues.
On West Haven’s first offensive snap of the third quarter, the ball sailed out of the end zone for a Cheshire safety. The Rams then marched 44 yards in six plays and got within 13-10 on a Michael Chopak 15 – yard touchdown run, and the conversion run by Shane Jerome.
Just two plays later, the Westies again snapped the ball out of the end zone, and Cheshire was within 13-12 with 9:09 left in the third quarter.
“We knew we had to play them a certain way and we did,” West Haven coach Tom Unger said. “I am proud of my team for doing that. The second half, you know sometimes the lights get big when it happens. We bounced back a little bit. I knew, unfortunately, when they got the ball with four and a half minutes left, their kicker was kicking fifty, sixty-yard field goals in warm-ups.”
West Haven had an opportunity to extend the lead, but was stopped on downs at the Cheshire 29 with just under 10 minutes remaining.
The Rams began their winning drive with 4:58 remaining, using a big 20-yard completion by Jerome to keep the drive going, then watching as Reinhard blasted the game-winning field goal with less than two minutes to go.
West Haven had one final drive, and quarterback Landon Gartner marched the Westies to the Cheshire 32, before two straight incompletions ended the rally.
Cheshire could not get going offensively in the first half as West Haven held the Rams to just 11 yards of total offense in the game’s first 24 minutes. Cheshire had six possessions, five ending with a punt, and the other ended with halftime.
While the Westies had 168 first half yards, they tallied a bulk of those yards on chunk plays. Haven N’sumbu scored twice in the first half for the Westies, the first coming on a 47-yard burst through the middle with 6:34 left in the opening quarter for a 7-0 lead.
West Haven had great field possession during the opening half, but it was a 10-play, 71-yard drive which led to a 7-yard touchdown run by N’sumbu with 1:13 left in the second quarter for a 13-0 advantage.
“There were so many positives,” Unger said. “Haven N’sumbu missed all of last year with an ACL injury. His nickname is Nightmare. He is a nightmare for other teams on defense, and he runs the ball hard. Darryl Small ran the ball really well in the first half. He cares so much.”
N’sumbu ran for 92 yards and two touchdowns, while Small ran for 73 yards in the loss for West Haven.
The West Haven boys soccer team opened the 2026 season with a 1-1 tie against Cheshire. After the Rams scored in the game’s opening minute, West Haven’s defense tightened and did not allow another tally.
The Westies evened the game on a goal by Santiago Morales off a free kick in the second half.
West Haven improved to 1-0-1 with an 8-0 home victory over East Haven. Yaril Guerra scored twice, while Bricatson Laurent, David Hancel, Joel Goodlow, Ismail Sanounou, Youssouf Keira, and Cadian Jones-Gaywood each scored once.
The girls soccer team opened the season with a 3-1 loss against Notre Dame-West Haven. West Haven then fell to 0-2 with a 4-0 home loss against Mercy. The Westies trailed 1-0 at the half, before Mercy pulled away in the second half.
The volleyball team opened the year with a 3-0 home victory over Amistad. The Westies won by scores of 25-11, 25-12, and 25-9.
Liz Aquino ran the offense with 19 assists, Gulianna Ruggerio had an all-around solid effort with nine kills, eight digs, and three aces, while Gabrielle Hines was stellar with 12 aces and seven kills. Isabella VanBrederode added six kills in the win.
West Haven fell to 1-1 with a 25-12, 21-25, 25-14, 25-27, 15-3 loss at Shelton. Aquino had 25 assists and four digs, Ruggerio had 18 kills and 14 digs, Hines added nine kills and three digs, Katheryne Macz had nine digs, Nathaly Siguencia Tenesaca added seven digs, and Estefanni Sotoj Ortiz had six digs.
West Haven improved to 2-1 with a 3-0 victory over Jonathan Law. The Westies won by scores of 25-19, 25-16, and 25-18.
Aquino led the way with 23 assists, three kills, and three digs, while Ruggerio had 15 kills and 15 digs. Hines added nine kills, and VanBrederode had five digs.
The West Haven boys cross-country team opened the season against Notre Dame – West Haven, Hillhouse, Branford, and Sheehan.
Afdal Wattara placed first in 9 minutes, 24.5 seconds, junior David Chen was third in 9:56.8, sophomore Antoni Vasquez was fourth in 10:16.2, and freshman Santiago Licona was fifth in 13:21.0. Senior Ben Proano finished in 19:48.4