AUGUSTA — Even after a rough start, there was no doubt that Cony head coach B.L. Lippert trusted Parker Morin to deliver.
Fourth-and-10 from punt formation? A fake for 30 yards to set up a touchdown. Three seconds left from the Lawrence 31? A Hail Mary TD pass to take a seven-point lead as the half expired. Fourth-and-2 on a critical drive? A well-executed hard-count, drawing the Bulldogs offsides and setting up another Cony score.
Morin, the junior quarterback, recovered from a 2-of-12 start Friday to complete 12 of 24 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns. That effort, combined with Cony stopping the Lawrence run game in a way it couldn’t on two occasions last season, powered the Rams to a 42-21 victory Friday at Fuller Field.
“We trust him,” Lippert said of Morin, who completed nine straight passes after his rough start. “He’s a really good player, a good athlete and a good decision-maker. He has some great guys to throw to, and we need a play, we have trust in him to make it and spark us offensively.”
Ethan Demmons caught five passes for 103 yards — including the desperation pass as time expired in the first half to put the hosts up 21-14 — and Anderson Noyes led the way on the ground with 17 carries for 106 yards and a touchdown for the Rams, who contained Lawrence to 199 yards rushing.
Lawrence (1-1) took the ball first and got off to a good start, going 61 yards on 13 plays in 5 minutes, 21 seconds. The Bulldogs got a 24-yard pass from Michael Hamlin on third-and-8 and a key fourth-down run by Colton Carter to set up a 1-yard plunge by Dustan Hunter-Bellows to take a 7-0 lead.
Both teams followed that drive with punts before Cony (2-0) took over with 3:31 left in the first quarter. Facing fourth-and-10 from the Lawrence 43, Morin looked as if he was going to punt but instead completed a 30-yard pass to Cooper Clark. Noyes scored on a 13-yard run the next play to tie the game.
“(Coach Lippert’s trust in me) is big, but really, you’ve got to give it up to my guy Coop there for making that catch,” Morin said. “If he doesn’t make that catch, this game could be totally different. That was a huge momentum swing for us and just got us going.”
In the second quarter, though, Lawrence answered with a vintage 18-play, 73-yard scoring drive. That possession, which culminated in a 4-yard touchdown pass from Hamlin to Dawson Moore on fourth-and-4, took nearly 10 minutes off the clock and put the Bulldogs up 14-7 with two minutes left in the half.
Yet the Rams drove down the field quickly, tying the game with 42 seconds left in the half on a 5-yard pass from Morin to Jackson Veilleux. Then, after Kaiden Veilleux recovered a Lawrence fumble with two seconds left, Morin found Demmons in the corner of the end zone to send the Cony sideline wild.
“I just saw two guys there covering me, but I know my guy Parker, and he’s going to throw it to me no matter what,” Demmons said. “He has confidence in me, and I have confidence in him.”
On fourth-and-3 from the Lawrence 33 early in the second half, Morin drew the Bulldogs offside before his 28-yard pass to Lance Theriault made it 28-14. Lawrence got a 1-yard score from Preston Roy with a minute left in the third, but touchdown runs from Morin and Anderson St. Onge in the fourth iced the win for the Rams.
Cony’s win avenged both a 40-7 regular-season loss to Lawrence last year and a 27-7 defeat to the Bulldogs in the Class B North championship game. The Rams held the Bulldogs just under 200 yards on the ground Friday after Lawrence ran for 483 yards in last year’s regular-season game and 480 in the regional final rematch.
“We put as much emphasis into it as we did last year, but obviously we had a little bit more success,” Lippert said. “I thought we tackled a lot better. Last week at Messo, we didn’t tackle Tatum Doucette very well, and this week, our tackling was a lot better. That played a hand in things.”
Carter, who sustained a knee injury in the first half but powered through it, finished with 64 yards on 16 carries for Lawrence. Roy finished with 12 carries for 48 yards and the touchdown for the Bulldogs, and Hamlin completed 6 of 12 passes for 100 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
In addition to rushing for less than half the yardage it did in last year’s matchups, Lawrence also struggled against Morin in a way it didn’t in 2023. Whereas the Bulldogs intercepted Morin four times in the B North championship game, the junior had his way against them after the early struggles.
“We asked our secondary to help us for the run support, and a couple times, they got too aggressive moving up, and Cony hit some (pass plays),” said Lawrence head coach John Hersom. “Helping on the run is something we want our secondary to do, but (Cony) can make it difficult.”
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