AUGUSTA — For a player who built his reputation on defense, Cony senior Anthony Sousa is making a pretty good case for himself on the other side of the ball.
Sousa is playing quarterback for the first time in his high school career and learning on the job, and quickly. Friday night, he helped engineer Cony’s first win of the season with a standout all-around performance against Brunswick.
Sousa threw three touchdowns, all to Jordan Roddy, and rushed for another as the Rams downed the Dragons 26-14 in a Pine Tree Conference Class B matchup at Alumni Field.
“I like it,” Sousa said of the position he last played in middle school. “I wasn’t a fan of it in middle school. I wasn’t a fan of it this year but they coached me into it.”
The Rams (1-2) never trailed. Sousa found Roddy in the right flat and he eluded tacklers for a 42-yard run. The Cony senior caught seven passes in all for 98 yards and additional scores of 12 and 39 yards in the second half.
“He’s going to get his catches,” Cony coach B.L. Lippert said. “He’s just a dynamic player. There’s not a lot of guys around who can cover him one-on-one. He caught it and made some great runs-after-catch tonight.”
Sousa completed 18 of 30 passes with one interception for 254 yards. He also led Cony rushers with 47 yards on 11 carries.
“Anthony is just a winner,” Lippert said. “He’s tough, he’s a great kid to coach. He had a rough game last week with three interceptions and he never batted an eye. He’s as confident as can be.”
Brunswick fell to 0-3, a first for veteran coach Dan Cooper. The Dragons drew to within a touchdown 12-7 when sophomore Owen Richardson (22 carries, 141 yards) burst off tackle for 57 yards in the third quarter. But the Dragons were hurt several times by penalties on offense and missed tackles on defense.
“Certainly we are young and inexperienced,” Cooper said. “But Cony executed. They were good where we’re kind of a little inexperienced.”
Sousa spread the ball around, finding seven different receivers on a variety of screens, slants and down-field passes.
The Rams played well defensively, too, led by the linebacking corps of Matthew and Mike Wozniak and Logan Leadbetter. Sousa and Reed Hopkins played well in the secondary, coming up quickly for big hits while Michael McFarland and Nic Mills stood out up front.
“Our linebackers are reading the keys and they’re playing downhill, they’re pretty athletic and they can tackle,” Lippert said.
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