Conard football lost to South Windsor, 50-26, in West Hartford on Friday night. 

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Six days removed from scoring 80 points but surrendering 74 against East Hartford, the Conard Red Wolves were held to 26 points while giving up 50 in a home loss to South Windsor at McKee Stadium Friday night.

Once again the defense struggled throughout the game with the Bobcats running the ball often and seemingly at will. The poor performance on defense Friday night followed a game where they surrendered nine offensive touchdowns and more than 450 yards in total.

“Too many times we are out of our gaps and missing tackles on defense,” said Conard head coach Matt Cersosimo. Last week, the offense bailed them out, running the ball for the win, but Friday, South Windsor had the answer.

It was more than just a loss for the Red Wolves as they were looking to go into the bye week with a winning record for the first time in more than a decade. A win against South Windsor would also have put them at 2-0 in CCC play. Instead, it will be two weeks of evaluation, correction, and working to find the solutions to a 2-3 start. “We are gonna spend the time looking at where we can get better in all areas of the game,” the coach said.

Conard started the game with a promising, up-tempo opening drive that saw them move the ball to the South Windsor 19. On a second-and-9, Brady Cersosimo’s pass deflected off the hands of Ian Caldwell and into the arms of safety Justin Flor for the turnover. South Windsor would be forced to punt the ball back to Conard, but the Red Wolves handed it back when they failed to convert on a fourth-and-3.

The visitors then began a drive exclusively on the ground featuring sweeps, and runs up the middle with running backs Jalil Montgomery and Ryan Faux, as well as quarterback Wyatt Prather. As the first quarter ended with no score, South Windsor was looking at a first-and-goal from the Conard 4. Montgomery would punch it in on the first play of the second quarter, but Caio Ferreira stopped the run on the 2-point try and it was 6-0.

The home team would answer on a long drive that was capped off by Holden Smith’s run to tie things at 6. On the drive Cersosimo and Henry Tamaccio connected on a pair of short passes, Cersosimo picked up valuable yardage running the ball, and Smith gained the tough yards to keep the drive moving. The Bobcats blocked the PAT try after a mishandled snap, and things were tied at 6 with 8:41 to play in the first half.

On the next possession South Windsor once again used the same running plays to chew up the yards, and were at the Conard 4 after a run by Prather that also saw a personal foul call against Conard. After stopping Montgomery on first down, Conard was called for encroachment before second down. Prather threw his first – and only – downfield pass on second down but it fell incomplete. Dominic McNeil ran it right up the gut to paydirt on third down and South Windsor was up 12-6.

“There were a lot of discipline things tonight,” Cersosimo said. “They do things right all week in practice, then lose it when it’s played at game speed.”

The next drive for Conard saw an incomplete pass, a short run, followed by an under-thrown pass, and a pass that was batted down by the defense on fourth down. On second down of their possession, South Windsor’s Montgomery took it 50 yards through the defense for the score and with the conversion held a 20-6 lead with 2:50 to play.

The Red Wolves would then put together a solid drive to pick up 7 points before halftime. Cersosimo hit Justin Nanayakarra on a third-and-16 to pick up a first down at the South Windsor 26 with :34 to play. Cersosimo kept it on second down and got to the 14, absorbing a big hit to get there. With :22 to go he once again hit Tamaccio on a slant and the junior wide receiver carried it into the end zone.

Trailing by 7 at the break, Conard needed to address their issues on defense, and figure out a strategy to connect on longer passes. The ones thrown by Cersosimo were either off target, or not secured by his receivers. The Bobcats received the second half kickoff and needed just a few minutes to score when Prather hooked up with Faux who used his speed to outrun the defense for a 50-yard touchdown.

Nanayakarra returned the kickoff 42 yards to near midfield to give Conard good starting position. Smith busted off a 25-yard run fighting through would-be tacklers on first down. Then on third down it was a run and a 15-yard penalty tacked on at the end to move it to first-and-goal at the 5. Smith was stopped at the half-yard line, but he took it in from there on the next play to make it 26-20 Bobcats with 6:56 to play.

The Conard defense was quick to surrender another score when South Windsor went back on offense. Montgomery had a huge run down the left sideline to get to the Conard 27, and then on a fourth-and-4 it was Prather taking up the middle for a first down. Montgomery would pick one another of his game-high four rushing TDs to give his team a 16-point lead.

Conard was held to a four-and-out when they got the ball back, and the visitors took over at midfield. On the drive Faux got outside and raced for a 40-yard score with :33 remaining and with the conversion it was 42-20 South Windsor. Conard was outscored 22-7 in the third quarter.

The home team would get its final score of the game early in the fourth quarter when Cersosimo hit Chance McCoy on a pop pass on a fourth down, and the running back dashed 70 yards being tackled as he crossed the goal line for the score.

Once again though, a combination of the defense not being able to stop the South Windsor offense and an ill-timed personal foul away from the ball by Conard landed the ball at the Red Wolves 19. On a fourth-and-5, Conard was flagged for encroachment giving the Bobcats a fresh set of downs. They would need only one of them as Montgomery scored his fourth and final touchdown of the game with a 4-yard run to close out the scoring.

“On offense we did not execute the passing game effectively enough,” the Conard head coach said after the game. “We had some dropped balls, some missed blocking assignments, and some inaccurate passing.”

Conard returns to the field to meet 5-0 (and No. 2 ranked in Class MM) Windsor on the road on the 23rd. After that they will not play a team that has a winning record the rest of the season. “We will be back because we still have a lot to play for,” said Cersosimo. “This is a test of how strong-minded we can be.”

Game notes

After the Windsor game, Conard’s next three opponents are a combined 3-11, including a winless Simsbury team. They end the regular season in the annual cross-town showdown with Hall on Nov. 22. The Titans are 2-3 after a loss to Bristol Central on Friday night.

In its three losses this year, Conard has given up 41, 27, and 50 points while surrendering 37 and 74 points in its wins. They have scored a total of 61 points in the three losses, and 122 in the two wins (that includes the 80 points against winless East Hartford.)

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