GARDINER — Tayler Carrier and the Cony football team set the tone for Friday night’s win over Gardiner from the very first series.

Carrier delivered a pair of crushing tackles on the opening series of the game and it was all Rams from there in a 41-0 win over the Tigers at Hoch field.

“It set the tone right away that we’re here to play football,” Cony quarterback Mitchell Caron said of the big hits. “It’s just another game. We didn’t get too involved in the hype or anything; we were playing football.”

Cony — which leads the all-time series 70-57-10 — has now won the last three games in the series and five of the past six. It is the first time the Rams have shut out Gardiner since 2001, when they topped the Tigers 24-0.

“I know this team can score 41 points on any given night, but for our defense to come out here and hold these guys — a good running team — to hold them to zero points says something about our defense,” Carrier, a senior, said. “That says something for the kids and how we’re coming along as a team, coming together, gang tackling and doing all the things right.”

The improvement Cony has made on defense has been impressive. After giving up 117 points in the first three games of the season, the Rams have allowed just 55 points in their previous five contests.

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“It’s come quite a ways,” Cony junior running back/linebacker Reid Shostak said. “We’ve just gotten tougher.”

The Tigers did show some fight of their own on the defensive side of the ball though, after Cony drove the ball down to a 1st-and-5 situation at the Gardiner 9-yard line on its first possession of the game.

The Tigers’ defense held, forcing the Rams into a 4th-and-4 but Gardiner would hurt its own cause when it jumped on Caron’s snap count to give Cony the first down with an offside penalty. Shostak ran it in on the next play to give the Rams a 6-0 lead with 3:20 remaining in the opening quarter.

“To be honest, it was just that we were struggling tonight,” Gardiner senior Chase Begin said. “We couldn’t put things together. Little mistakes, missing blocks, missing tackles, just little stuff happened and it broke down the game.”

From there it was a combination of swarming Cony defense — which held Gardiner to just 53 yards in the first half — and strong running from Shostak that allowed the Rams to build on their lead.

Originally, Cony intended on utilizing its usual spread, passing offense but the wet, cold conditions forced them to change to a more ground-based attack featuring Shostak, who finished with 25 carries for 159 yards and two scores.

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“The game plan originally was to throw but I couldn’t get a grip on the ball,” Caron said. “Too cold, too wet and I just couldn’t grip it, so we started running the ball and Reid just made some great plays.”

Shostak was featured on the drive that allowed Cony to start breaking the game open, as he carried the ball four times for 58 yards on a possession that began late in the first quarter. Caron would ultimately cap off the drive with a nine-yard run to make it 14-0 Rams with 10:48 remaining until intermission.

Gardiner continued to struggle to move the ball, while Cony’s offense kept rolling as Caron hit Taylor Heath on a 30-yard touchdown pass two minutes later to make it 20-0.

The Rams ultimately took a 28-0 lead into the half on a seven-yard pass from Caron to Anthony Brunelle with no time remaining, all but sealing the Tigers’ fate.

Evan Crawley – 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley


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