SKOWHEGAN — After a sluggish first half, the Cony offense found its groove in the second, scoring four touchdowns to pull away with a 35-7 win at Skowhegan.
Quarterback Riley Geyer three four touchdown passes in the second half, one to Casey Mills, two to Adrian Larrabee, and one to Colin Manning.
Cony improved to 2-0, while Skowhegan is 0-2.
“We kind of underestimated Skowhegan. They were pretty good defensively,” Geyer said.
For the second straight game, Geyer ran for more than 100 yards — 146 — and threw more more than 100 — 156. With the score tied 7-7 at the half, Geyer led the Rams on the game’s signature drive to start the third quarter.
Cony went 80 yards in 16 plays and seven minutes, 14 seconds, scoring when Geyer hit a wide open Mills with a 5-yard touchdown pass. The play gave Cony the lead for good, 14-7.
“For my money, (Skowhegan head coach) Ryan Libby is maybe the best defensive coordinator we face every year. We haven’t had a lot of success the last two years against them,” Cony head coach B.L. Lippert said.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Geyer connected with Larrabee in the back of the end zone for a 21-7 lead. Geyer said he had a hand in his face and didn’t think he got off a good throw.
“It was a bad throw, and Adrian made a hell of a play to go get it,” Geyer said.
Skowhegan gained just one first down in the second half, and it came in the closing seconds of the game. On the other hand, Cony was able to mount long drive after long drive. A pair of Geyer touchdown passes in the final five minutes, a 30-yarder to Larrabee and a 17-yard shovel pass to Manning, increased the Rams lead.
“We just could not get off the field,” Libby said. “They hit us for that touchdown on fourth down (in the third quarter), and we really needed that (stop)… they were getting five yards a clip, first down every couple plays. We couldn’t force third and long.”
In the first half, it was Skowhegan that had more success moving the ball, but not the points to show it. On it’s third trip inside Cony’s 20 yard line in the first half. Skowhegan finally found the end zone. Mason Fitzgerald’s one yard TD run on the final play of the first half knotted the score at 7-7 at the break.
Cony struck quickly, on its second offensive series of the game, when quarterback Riley Geyer took a draw up the middle for a 47 yard touchdown run and a 7-0 lead with 5:13 left in the first quarter.
Skowhegan marched deep into Ram territory each of its next three possessions. The first two ended empty-handed. Early in the second quarter, Skowhegan stalled on downs after advancing to the Cony seven. After forcing the Rams three and out, Skowhegan was turned away when Adrian Larrabee picked off a Camden Green pass at the Cony 5-yard line.
Skowhegan’s scoring drive came after forcing another Cony three and out. Starting on the Cony 40 with 4:12 left in the half, Skowhegan used 13 plays to eat the remainder of the half. Skowhegan concerted a pair of fourth downs on the drive, including Fitzgerald’s touchdown run.
Fitzgerald ran for 72 yards and caught four passes for 25 for Skowhegan.
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