Conant breaks away from Elk Grove

The second half belonged to Conant Friday night at Elk Grove.

The visiting Cougars were held to just a touchdown in the first two quarters by a tough-minded Grenadiers defense, and went into halftime clinging to a 6-3 lead.

Then Conant came out and put up 27 unanswered points after the break en route to a 33-10 Mid-Suburban League crossover win.

"We came out in the second half with the mindset that we weren't winning, that it was 0-0," said Conant junior lineman Shaun Daidone. "Compared to last year, when we couldn't finish - we lost some games in overtime - we told ourselves that we had to finish tonight."

Senior wide receiver Vinny Faciano led the Elk Grove offensive effort with 4 catches for 65 yards, but Grens coach Miles Osei said that there's still a lot of work to be done for his team on that side of the ball.

"We've got to get our offense going," said Osei. "We're going to watch film, learn, and get better."

Conant scored a TD on its opening drive (10 yard run by Anthony Wachal), then Elk Grove countered in the second quarter by pushing the ball all the way to the Cougars' 4-yard line.

But the drive stalled thanks to some stellar tackling from Conant's Dante Trombetta, and the Grens settled for a 21-yard field goal.

Neither team threatened again in the first half and Conant went in to the locker room up by 3.

"We knew that we had to come out and play (after halftime) - we were shooting ourselves in the foot in the beginning," said Conant senior running back Joseph Perez. "We just cleaned some things up in the second half and executed."

"Our line played great tonight," added Perez. "When they get going, there's no stopping them."

Conant scored 3 times in the third quarter.

First senior Davon Holmes ran in from 25-yards out to make the score 13-3.

"All through our practices this week coach (Bryan Stortz) told us to be physical, that this was going to be a physical game," said Holmes. "We just came out and started hitting them, hitting them, hitting them. It just shows the toughness we have."

Wachal followed with a 21-yard TD reception from quarterback Kevin Polaski, one of only 2 passes the Cougars attempted the entire game.

Then Polaski found the end zone on a 23-yard run near the end of the 3rd quarter, and just like that Conant led 26-3 after 3.

"I think after halftime we were just flying around," said Conant senior Mason Reiger, who helped key a strong team effort on "D" with an interception from his safety position. "All eleven helmets to the ball, everybody was rallying and there was no solo tackling."

Conant salted the game away with a time-consuming, 15-play 4th quarter drive that culminated in a 10-yard scoring run by Perez.

Elk Grove's Ian Ridge scored the final TD of the game on a 5-yard run.

"We just completely forgot about the first half," said Reiger of the Cougars adjustments at intermission. "We thought about coming into the second half with a whole fresh start, take care of our responsibilities, do everything that we've been practicing and everything that we needed to do."

"We knew if we did that the game would turn in our favor."

Conant finished with 401 yards on the ground as a team on 57 carries, while the Cougars defense held Elk Grove to 75 yards rushing.

Conant improved to 2-0 on the season.

"That's huge," added Reiger of the hot start. "That's going to definitely go into our mentality for the next couple of games. We needed that kind of start to the season."