DERBY – With Derby off to a promising start in its first season in the Naugatuck Valley League, Red Raiders senior running back D’ Ron Conyers has noticed something different.
Derby has reeled off three straight victories following a season-opening loss to St. Paul and takes a 3-1 record into Friday’s contest at Watertown.
“Now that we’re winning, everybody wants to support us,” Conyers said.
It’s funny how that works.
“I’m starting to get nice phone calls this time,” Derby coach Carmen Dicenso joked.
One of the benefits of joining the NVL is that it allowed the Red Raiders to renew their “Valley” rivalries that had been discontinued when they were members of the Southern Connecticut Conference.
Last week, Derby hosted Seymour in the first meeting between the schools since 1993, and the contest attracted more than 2,000 fans at DeFillipo Field. That’s still a few thousand short of the crowds that would routinely turn out for the annual Ansonia-Derby games, but it’s an improvement.
After struggling in the SCC for a number of years, the Red Raiders have a long way to go, but perhaps they are seeing the first rumblings of a once-storied program awakening.
In 15 seasons in the SCC, Derby posted an overall record of 53-100-2, including a mark of just 28-64-2 during this decade.
“I don’t know if it’s the change in the league or a change in the attitude of the kids, but our numbers went from 27 last year – with a co-op – up to 45, and that’s really helped,” said Dicenso, who noted that 21 of the current players are sophomores.
Derby has shared a program with neighboring O’Brien Tech of Ansonia since 2007, though at one point it would have been unthinkable for the Red Raiders to struggle with numbers. They have nine players on their squad this year from O’Brien Tech.
The declining numbers can be attributed to a population decrease in Derby, the state’s smallest municipality with only five square miles, and a change in the town’s demographics.
This year’s team is a work in progress, and the season has produced a thrill a minute. In the opener, the Red Raiders squandered a 13-point lead and suffered a 14-13 defeat to St. Paul, the other newcomer in the NVL.
The following week was the wild and wacky 42-40 victory over Sacred Heart in which sophomore kicker Luis Casco booted a 26-yard field goal as time expired.
Two week ago, Derby needed overtime to defeat Naugatuck, 20-14, and last week it overcame a slew of mistakes – five lost fumbles – to best Seymour, 34-20.
According to Dicenso, sophomore quarterback Ray Krieger has shown steady improvement each week. The young signal-caller made a number of big plays last week.
“As a sophomore, the last couple of weeks, he’s really taken some steps forward,” the coach said.
At times, the Red Raiders have displayed a surprisingly potent offense. The tandem of Conyers, whose father was an all-American at the University of New Haven in the 1980s, and Linbert Cousley has given Derby a solid one-two punch in the backfield.
“D’Ron is a good athlete, he has a lot of potential and he comes to play on Friday night,” Dicenso said.
Although the Red Raiders lost their opener, Dicenso feels they learned something from that game after doing a solid job of containing St. Paul receiver Marcus Aiken, who has verbally committed to Connecticut.
The Sacred Heart contest was a nightmare defensively, as Hearts quarterback Rohan Ifill passed for 457 yards and five touchdowns, although the Red Raiders played most of that game without starting safety Jacob Tomczak, another sophomore who pulled a muscle in his leg during pregame warmups.
Following that contest, Dicenso made some adjustments, and Derby’s defense has been better the last two games, especially against the pass. Beating Naugatuck was a solid win for the program because it came against a Class L school.
Now, the Red Raiders are setting their sights on their first winning season since 1996, two years after they left the old Housatonic League. Actually, Conyers has an ever loftier goal.
“We want to make the playoffs, play in December,” he said.
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