GARDINER — The Cony football team hadn’t faced much adversity this season. Entering Friday night’s finale with Gardiner, the Rams hadn’t lost. They went six weeks without so much as trailing.
Adversity showed up at Hoch Field, however. And though they may be strangers, the Rams were ready.
Riley Geyer ran for 131 yards and caught a long pass from Dakota Andow to set up a game-sealing touchdown, and Cony, down early and up only a point early into the fourth quarter, defeated Gardiner 15-6 in the 142nd meeting between the state’s longest-running rivals.
Gardiner defender Logan Grover, left, wraps up Cony’s Colin Manning during the annual rivalry game Friday night at Hoch Field in Gardiner. Kennebec Journal photo by Joe Phelan Buy this Photo
“It’s surreal,” said defensive end Caleb MacFarland, who anchored a relentless Cony defense. “It’s crazy. Senior year and we go out big like this, losing everyone, it’s a great feeling.”
Cony finished the regular season 8-0 and will take the No. 2 overall seed in the Pine Tree Conference Class B playoffs.
“It’s nice to go 8-0. We’ve got to kind of turn the page and look ahead to next week, but we’re going to enjoy this one for tonight,” Cony coach B.L. Lippert said. “That was some adversity that we hadn’t seen all year, and we really responded well.”
Gardiner fell to 2-6 and saw its season end, but not without giving the undefeated Rams all they could handle. If the Tigers were supposed to be a final warm-up before Cony began its postseason run, the players in orange and black jerseys didn’t get the memo.
“We had a great gameplan going in. Coach (Pat) Munzing, he’s got the lock and key on these guys,” Gardiner coach Joe White said. “The kids responded very well. … It just didn’t work in our favor, but I’m really proud of the way these guys played tonight.”
Cony dominated yardage and time of possession, but was having trouble separating from the Tigers with a 7-6 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Rams eventually found themselves looking at a second-and-16 from the Gardiner 19 when Lippert made a change, putting his standout quarterback in Geyer at receiver and his senior captain receiver – and backup quarterback – in Andow behind center.
“(Geyer’s) a really good receiver,” Lippert said. “It was something to change the pace, and Dakota throws the ball well. There are not a lot of guys that can not warm up all day … and (hear me say) ‘Hey, you’re going to quarterback’ and not bat an eye.”
Andow was ready for the call.
“He asked me if I could throw it to Riley,” Andow said, “and I said ‘Sure, give me a chance.’ ”
It took a penalty and an incompletion, but the connection was finally made. Andow threw the ball down the left sideline on third-and-26 from the 29, and Geyer leapt up and won a battle for the ball and a 26-yard completion. It was still fourth down, but only inches to go, and Geyer got the first down and then a touchdown on a 1-yard run.
The Rams went for two and converted, with Geyer hitting Colin Manning to make it 15-6 with 9:24 to play. Gardiner didn’t get past its own 25 the rest of the night.
“(Wyatt Chadwick) knocked down the first one, and I was like ‘All right, this kid can play,’ ” Geyer said. “I went up on the third one and I (thought) ‘I’ve got to try something different.’ I kind of tried to jump over him, Dakota threw a good ball and I came down with it.”
The Rams finally had breathing room. They had none to start. On the opening drive, a Geyer pass fell right to Logan Grover, who turned up the field, veered to the left sideline and raced by the pursuing Rams for a 62-yard return and a 6-0 Gardiner lead with 8:21 left in the first quarter.
Cony linebacker Luke White tries to tackle Gardiner’s AJ Chadwick during the annual rivalry game Friday night at Hoch Field in Gardiner. Kennebec Journal photo by Joe Phelan Buy this Photo
The Tigers got another break when they recovered the ensuing kickoff, but Gardiner couldn’t convert and had to punt it away. Geyer made up for his mistake, hitting Manning for a 31-yard pass to the Gardiner 4 on fourth-and-3, and Jamal Cariglia ran it in from 2 yards out two plays later for a 7-6 lead with 1:20 left in the quarter.
“It was good for us (to respond),” said Geyer, who had 33 carries and was named game MVP. “In playoffs, it’s not going to go our way (all the time). If they score twice, we need to come back.”
There were no other points in the half, but big plays kept coming. Blaise Tripp returned the following kickoff 88 yards to the Cony 5, but the Rams jumped on a Sean Michaud fumble on the Tigers’ next play from scrimmage. Three drives later, Michaud turned a screen pass into a 56-yard gain to the Cony 26. Nine seconds remained, but a pair of Noah Reed passes fell incomplete to preserve the one-point advantage.
The Tigers never got the score they needed, but White knew it wasn’t for lack of effort.
“They just played incredibly. I’m proud of them,” he said. “They never gave up for a second.”
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