Cardinals and Tigers Under The Lights

 

I'm home from football.

This is an oft-repeated fact that we (and most broadcasters) put everything we have into our broadcasts.

Ridgefield High School's Tiger Hollow is a beautiful facility but it's also one that has confounded me a bit.

Cell service is everything to us. It's either how we connect with other facets of our world to stay in touch or it's how we actually broadcast.

Tiger Hollow is well-known for not having great service. However, in recent times, a tower has been erected nearby. That gave us hope.

Yet, the last time Chris Erway and I worked there, we dealt with terrible service in pouring rain. It was miserable.

Tonight? Flawless.

Ridgefield athletic director Dane Street did everything to make us comfortable, including hooking us up with wifi that wouldn't get interrupted.

For whatever reason, the "press box" is a true misnomer in that there's simply no room for the press (ahem, including broadcasters) up there. So Chris and I were again among the patrons. Thankfully that was not a problem.

When Chris and I are feeling it, we're pretty dangerous. Tonight, I think we were sort of feeling it. That also means might get better.

The game, of course, helps.

Ridgefield, coming off a 41-point loss, came out on fire. They scored on their opening drive and built up a 21-0 lead by the second quarter.

Greenwich rallied and cut it to 21-13 by halftime. The Cardinals' defense got more confident by the minute and they shut down the Tigers enough that the offense could answer to get to 21-20

But Ridgefield responded and made it 28-20.

Well, eventually, Greenwich took over. They'd build a 14-point lead before the Tigers scored a late touchdown.

Final: Greenwich 49, Ridgefield 42.

The atmosphere was electric. 

The game might be memorable but it's hard to say.

That's just it. We try so hard to make things "instant classics" and don't let them breathe. No question tonight was a lot of fun but will we always remember it? I feel like only time will tell.

Memorable to me right now is that we went to Ridgefield and had pretty flawless broadcast.

We need to do it again tomorrow when Brunswick hosts The Hun School.

I'll see Greenwich next Saturday after I step off the plane from San Francisco.