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No doubt about this Conant win

If there were any doubters that were wondering how good Conant’s football team really is, their questions were answered Friday night.

In a Mid-Suburban League crossover over at the Cougars’ Feutz field, Conant dismantled Buffalo Grove 47-14.

Conant’s defense stood out in forcing 6 turnovers and turning 3 of them into scores.

“If you watch any football game on any level,” said Bison coach Jim Farrell, “six turnovers is going to equate to what was on the scoreboard.”

The Cougars (3-0) took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in five plays. Quarterback Matt Cullen (9 of 15, 182 yds, 3 TDs) hit Tim Manczko with a 54 yard pass to make it 6-0.

Buffalo Grove (1-2) mishandled the ensuing kickoff with Cordell Smith making the hit and Joe Faso made the first of his two fumble recoveries at the Bison 35.

On first down, Cullen hit Jake Valas with a 35-yard scoring pass for a 12-0 lead with 9:51 left in the quarter.

Smith finished the first quarter scoring with a 17-yard run that was set up by Faso’s fumble recovery and a 18-0 lead.

“We wanted to get after them with our defense,” said Conant coach Bill Modelski. “We talked about forcing turnovers in practice and it happened to go our way. It just wasn’t BG’s night.”

Another fumble recovery, this time by Adam Starks, led to Manczko’s 5-yard run with 10:24 left in the first half.

Cullen finished the first half scoring with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Nick Blaha with 5:48 left for a 32-0 lead.

“The offensive line ( Paul Perchon, Kevin Modelski, Andrew Engel, John Schaul and Mike Smith) is executing and the defense is doing their thing,” said Cullen. “We’re all watching each other’s back. At this point we like the way things are developing but we know we can still improve.”

The defense, led by Danny Lampert’s 2 interceptions, held the Bison to just 3 rushing yards and 208 yards overall.

“We played well in practice this week,” said Lampert. “Tonight we proved ourselves. People have doubted us. We proved we could beat a good team.”

The Bison took advantage of the lone Cougars turnover when quarterback Rich Zirngibl (16-for-30, 3 interceptions, 205 yards) hit Jordan Rathje with an 18-yard scoring pass with 9:35 left in the third quarter to make the score 32-7.

Conant came right back to score on the second touchdown by Smith (9 carries, 73 yards), this one a 45-yard run.

A blocked punt recovery in the end zone by Conant’sTom Zidek upped the lead to 47-7 on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Zirngibl connected with Ryan Schumi on a 31-yard TD pass with :17 left.