The Conard boys soccer team hosted Farmington in West Hartford on Sept. 24.

By Ronni Newton

A scrappy effort by the Conard boys soccer team Friday afternoon wasn’t quite enough to overcome Farmington in a home game that ended in a 3-1 loss.

Farmington’s No. 10, Matt Cence scored two of the River Hawks’ three goals, both times dribbling straight through the Chieftain defense, which head coach Adam Linker said has yet to be out on the field at full strength this season due to injuries and illness.

“We went up against a really talented tough team in Farmington,” Linker said. “We knew we were going to have our work come out for us … In the end we did a really good job except for No. 10. He had two just ridiculous individual runs and that ended our game.”

Those two plays made the difference, and Linker said that Cence, a senior, is the top player the team has faced this season.

Farmington junior Isaac Coella was the first to net the ball about 15 minutes into the first half.

Less than a minute into the second half, Cence dribbled more than 50 yards and knocked the ball in, but the Chieftains answered that one quickly with a goal by junior Jayson Brown with 36:45 left to go.

Sixteen seconds later, Cence scored his second, putting Farmington up 3-1, a score which held until the end.

“We talked about how we’ve got to lick our wounds and move on to the next one,” Linker said of the post-game conversation. Next week the Chieftains face two rival West Hartford teams – at Northwest Catholic (1-4) on Tuesday, and against Hall (4-0-1) on Friday night at home under the lights.

“We allowed one kid to take over the play and we can’t allow that to happen,” Linker said.

“We haven’t been 100% the whole entire year,” he added. Conard should have some players back this week, but he doesn’t expect to be at full strength for another week and a half or so. “Injuries, illnesses, it’s what you’ve got to battle through. … It’s the next man up.”

With the loss, Conard is now 3-2-1. The tie came in a game against Avon, a team that also played Hall to a 1-1 tie. Farmington’s only loss thus far was against Hall.

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