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Schools

Cotton Powers Conard Over South Windsor, 49-7

Rushes for 208 yards, two TDs in a season-opening CCC Division I rout at McKee Stadium.

Hold on. passed for two touchdowns Saturday at McKee Stadium. Two long, arching, skillfully spiraling touchdown passes.

“People think we don’t like to throw the ball. We love to throw the ball,” Conard coach Rob Cersosimo said. "But when you’re doing something really well, you want keep doing it. I’m not much for experimentation.”

Not with Ricky Cotton, who ran for 208 yards and two touchdowns as Conard rolled to a 49-7 victory over South Windsor in a CCC Division I season opener.

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“Conard is Conard,” South Windsor coach Mike Bullock said. “Every year they are a solid team that’s going to shove the ball down your throat. Every year they have a solid offensive line. Things don’t change. For years things haven’t changed.”

Cotton scored with 23- and 33-yard bursts in the third quarter, when Conard took control with 21 points. He averaged 11.6 yards on 18 carries.

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Last season Cotton had 31 handoffs all season behind all-time Conard rusher Jon Esposito (Princeton).

“How do I best say this?” said Cersosimo, who gained his 172nd victory in his 28th season. “Jon Esposito was the best back we’ve ever had. How do you replace Jon? You don’t. But Ricky Cotton is our tailback. And Ricky Cotton is the guy we give the ball to. His job is to be the best Ricky Cotton that he can be.”

Cotton rushed for 125 yards on seven of Conard’s 10 plays in the third quarter. Matt Douglin’s 13-yard run capped a three-play, 71-yard drive for a 21-7 lead less than 90 seconds after the second-half kickoff.

Cotton’s 23-yard TD seemed to cover twice the distance. He swept to the right side-line, cut left after a block by Dominic Spaulding, and outran the South Windsor defense to the left pylon.

Cotton’s 33-yard run gave Conard a 35-7 advantage with 4 minutes, 37 seconds left in the quarter.

“I thought the kids did the fundamentals extremely well in the third period,” Cersosimo said. “We made some mistakes that are very un-Conard-like in the first part of the game.”

Two procedure penalties nullified Cotton’s 55- and 22-yard end zone runs in the second quarter. In the first quarter, Cotton’s unscripted pitch was fumbled at the end of a 46-yard run.

Conard also overcame a holding call near the end of the first quarter when quarterback Owen Snyder hit Anthony Lugo with a 55-yard scoring strike.

Snyder, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound junior, also feathered a 27-yard TD pass to Luis Colon for a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.

Conard gained 433 yards and held South Windsor to 112.

South Windsor was in minus-yardage until the final three plays of the half. After a 51-yard reception from Jessie Lavoie, David Keaveny caught an 11-yard TD pass as the second quarter ran out.

“Our inexperience started to show,” Bullock said. “We made adjustments at halftime but they didn’t react like they did in the first half. We didn’t get into position quick enough, and we didn’t have the same intensity.”

Cersosimo substituted freely in the fourth quarter. Stacy Thomas ran five times for 42 yards, including a 2-yard TD. Joe Balesano, a sophomore transfer from , bulled in from 2 yards for the final score.

“Our offensive line did a real nice job of opening holes for Ricky,” Cersosimo said. “Owen threw the ball well and we had two great catches for touchdowns. We had a lot of kids do a real nice job for us and that’s what we need to do to be successful.”

S:     0      7      0      0      --     7

C:    7      7      21    14    --     49

1st – C, Lugo (0:54), 55 pass from Snyder (Spaulding kick)

2nd – C, Colon (4:26), 27 pass from Snyder (Spaulding kick)

2nd – S, Keaveny (0:00), 10 pass from Lavoie (Crouch kick)

3rd – C, Douglin (10:43), 13 run (Spaulding kick)

3rd – C, Cotton (6:40), 23 run (Spaulding kick)

3rd – C, Cotton (4:46), 33 run (Spaulding kick)

4th – C, Thomas (10:34), 2 run (Spaulding kick)

4th – C, Balesano (4:10), 2 run (Spaulding kick)

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