Conant gets some answers against Wheeling

Conant found a few things Friday night.

A quarterback. An offense. The end zone.

And a win.

Things looked bleak for the Cougars as they struggled through another two quarters of scoreless football against a tough Wheeling defense and went to the locker room fortunate to only be trailing 3-0 after being fairly well dominated.

But simplifying the offense a bit worked wonders for new quarterback Kevin Smith, who has taken over for injured Kyle Bradley. The Cougars rolled up 139 of their total 181 yards in the second half, and all of their points in a 21-3 win that was much closer than the score.

"We're facing a lot of adversity," said Conant coach Bill Modelski after the victory in the home opener evened their record at 1-1.

Smith, who ran for 2 TDs and threw for one more, credited his offense line and his defense for making his role possible. And hedidn't forget his coaches.

"I just became more comfortable in the offense," he noted after the coaches stripped down a few plays at halftime. "I just kind of settled down."

A defense that kept giving him good field position also helped.

"The defense really gave us some good chances to score," he noted after Michael Meier had Wheeling quarterback Amani Dennis running for his life most of the second half, with help from Odell Andrews.

"The defense was awesome," said Modelski.

So was the modest Smith, who said of his own play, "I just put my head down and ran hard."

Conant's second-half scoring began with a nearly eight-minute drive in the third quarter, entirely on the ground until Smith closed it with a snappy slant pass to Palmer Graham for a 23-yard TD and the lead. The drive was 13 plays, impressively covering 82 yards.

The defense gave him great field position after that for a 35-yard drive that closed with his 7-yard run and a 24-yard drive which he ended with a 5-yard run. His offensive line, anchored by Brad Kalish, Joe Novak, Nathan Kawalek and Chris Siegel, gave him plenty of running room, and did the same for hard-charging tailback Jake Jakubosky (13 carries, 62 yards).

Wheeling was likely thinking it should've had more than a 3-0 halftime lead. Dennis dominated the first half with his feet and his arm, including a 51-yard bomb to Charlie Zettek that set up Felipe Trujillo's 41-yard field goal. But the Cats squandered a fumble recovered on the ensuing kickoff and a pick by Tyler Urban to start the second half, not to mention the standout rushing of Josh Diaz (15 carries, 65 yards).

Now, though, Conant only wants to keep it going.

"We can't rely on the rush as much," Smith realizes of having to diversify the offense a little more.

"I'm so proud of him," Modelski said though of his inexperienced signal-caller, who said his team "played a hard-fought, gritty game. We knew going in this was how we had to play."