Conard Improves To 8-0 With 47-0 Victory

Ricky Cotton needed one carry to surpass a milestone. Anthony Lugo accounted for 141 scoring yards. Owen Snyder threw three touchdowns on 4-for-4 passing. And each time Luis Colon caught the ball – once on offense, once on defense – he scored.

In the aftermath of a brutal storm, improving to 8-0 with a 47-0 victory over East Hartford seemed like an afterthought for coach Rob Cersosimo Tuesday at McKee Stadium.

“The kids fought through a lot of adversity today to just get to the game,” Cersosimo said. “And to have the kids play as well as they did, that was also very good.”

With the game in hand early, Conard, which had two days to practice, also declined to receive the second-half kickoff, turned down yardage on a penalty and went without a punt returner.

The misfortune for East Hartford (2-6) was compounded by a roster of 25 players and by the weird: After the opening score, Dominic Spaulding’s kickoff sailed high, landed at about the East Hartford 20-yard line, backed up sharply like a Tiger Wood’s wedge shot and was recovered untouched by Nick Sone at the 26.

In more customary action, Cotton moved to 10^th all-time in Conard single-season rushing, gaining 88 yards and two TDs on seven carries, all in the first quarter. He has 1,081 yards and is the 12th Conard running back to crack 1,000 yards.

On Conard’s first play, Cotton burst 47 yards for a touchdown. He added a 2-yard score for a 12-0 lead with 8:41 in the quarter.

Led by 2011 graduate Jonathan Esposito, who ran for a school-record 1,991 yards in 2009 and 1,800 last season, Conard has three-straight 1,000-yard ground efforts for the first time since a four-year stretch in 1996-99.

“It’s great that our tailback exceeded 1,000 yards again this year,” Cersosimo said.

Conard gained 275 total yards (221 in the first half) and held East Hartford to negative yardage until the fourth quarter. The defense threw East Hartford for losses on 12 plays.

In the second half, Cersosimo and East Hartford coach Dan Lawrence agreed to keep the clock running.

Snyder threw for 151 yards, including 28- and 58-yard scoring passes to Lugo and a 37-yarder to Colon, who also returned an interception 28 yards for a TD to give Conard a 33-0 lead with 8:33 before halftime. All four of Colon's receptions this season have been for scores.

Snyder became the first Conard quarterback in nine years to throw for three TDs in a game and has nine this season.

Lugo dashed 55 yards with a punt for the final score.

Two minutes later, with 1:55 before the half, Cersosimo called for a timeout.

“I told them to keep playing hard – just keep playing hard,” Cersosimo said. “Obviously we didn’t want to put the ball in the end zone again. But I told them, ‘I don’t want you not to play hard. You have to play hard.’”

Conard, which has scored 264 points and allowed 58 this season, is rated third in Class LL behind Xavier and Staples. Newington (2-6) visits McKee on Saturday followed by Hall (7-1), currently eighth in LL and fighting for the last postseason berth.

“[Newington is] coming off two games where they [averaged] 35 points each game. We’ll have our hands full,” Cersosimo said. “We have a lot of work to do to make sure we prepare properly.”

Conard 47, East Hartford 0

C     19    28    0      0  –  47

E      0      0      0      0  –   0

1^st – Cotton, 47 run (kick failed), 10:16

1^st – Cotton, 2 run (run failed), 8:41

1^st – Colon, 37 pass from Snyder (Spaulding kick), 3:01

2^nd – Lugo, 28 pass from Snyder (Spaulding kick), 11:43

2^nd – Colon, 28 interception return (Spaulding kick), 8:33

2^nd – Lugo, 58 pass from Snyder (Spaulding kick), 6:29

2^nd – Lugo, 55 punt return (Spaulding kick), 3:59