After a 5-5 season last year in which they had a lot of young talent, the Naugatuck Greyhounds looked to improve in 2016. They had more experience and a strong senior class and had high hopes to make the state playoffs.

They started strong with a come from behind win vs Derby in week 1 and then suffered a loss to a very strong Seymour team. With a 1-1 start, the Greyhounds took off running, winning 5 in a row, posting 3 shutouts and never scoring less than 39 points during the stretch.

At 6-1, the Hounds went into Wolcott only to suffer their second loss of the year. Sitting at 6-2 they would need to win their final 2 games to make the state playoffs. Week 9 the Greyhounds took care of Waterbury Career Academy 55-18 which improved their record to 7-2 meaning that they would need a win on Thanksgiving Day vs Ansonia to secure their spot in the playoffs.

Naugatuck vs Ansonia is one of the oldest rivalries in the state. Ansonia has won 5 straight Thanksgiving matchups and would look to make it 6 in a row and improve to 10-0. The Greyhounds looked to stop the win streak and clinch their spot in the playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Greyhounds the Ansonia win streak continued, winning 44-0, and Naugy will miss the playoffs for the second straight year.

Junior quarterback Mike Plasky said that the biggest accomplishment this team had was being able to turn around an average season last year into a winning season this year.

The Greyhounds will be saying goodbye to 11 seniors this year, one of them being Matt Johnson who’s played Naugatuck football since age 9.

When asked what he will miss most Matt said he is going to miss being around all his teammates and all the people who made his time as a Naugatuck football player so special. “I’ll definitely miss wearing the garnet and grey, I’ll miss being able to represent the town.”