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Falcons play better but East Catholic pulls away in fourth quarter for the win

Avon QB Dylan Burgos threw his third TD pass of the season Saturday in a loss to East Catholic.

Avon QB Dylan Burgos threw his third TD pass of the season Saturday in a loss to East Catholic.

MANCHESTER, Sept. 17 – Things are getting better for the Avon High football team. It didn’t result in a win Saturday against East Catholic but the Falcons performed better than they did a week earlier in a loss to Rocky Hill on opening day.

Twice, Avon scored touchdowns to take a lead and trailed by just two points after three periods. But some big plays from East Catholic running back Marc Zazzaro in the fourth quarter helped lift the Eagles to a 30-14 Central Connecticut Conference win over the Falcons at Cheney Tech Saturday afternoon.

Leading by just two points, 16-14, Zazzaro scored on a 65-yard run in the fourth quarter to put the Eagles ahead by 10. A 49-yard touchdown run by Zazzaro concluded the scoring. Zazzaro ran for four touchdowns and a game-high 201 yards on 15 carries.

“It was a dramatic improvement over week one,” Avon coach Sal Cintorino said. “We focus on getting better every day and the kids really played better. They had two big scoring plays (in the fourth quarter) but we had opportunities throughout the game.”

Avon took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter after Leon Asberry scored a touchdown on a 46-yard run. Jack Jones had the extra point. The Eagles came back with Zazzaro’s first touchdown of the game a successful two-point conversion to take an 8-7 lead.

The Falcons went ahead 14-8 on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Burgos to Tommy Donovan. A 30-yard pass from Burgos to Peter Gerosa set up the Falcon score. It was the third TD pass of the season for Burgos.

Cintorino praised the play of Burgos at quarterback, Asberry at running back and Jones at tailback along with Gerosa and Donovan at receiver. Guard Nick Schuster and tackles George Pavlakis and Henry Schrecenghost played well up front.

Defensively, Schuster, Vinny Bonalumi and Tucker Gill played well on the defensive line along with linebackers Ryan Ollstead, Dan Quick and Francisco Allelund. Donovan and Spencer Jones had interceptions and the Falcons did recover two East Catholic fumbles.

Avon (0-2, 0-0 CCC Division III East) returns to the field on Friday night when they travel to face Tolland, at 6:30 p.m., in the first CCC Div. III East game of the season.

NOTE: Avon is 0-2 for the first time since 2006. That was the last time that Avon dropped their first three games of the season. … Avon’s rivalry with Tolland was reborn when the Falcons joined the Central Connecticut Conference last fall. The two teams played against each other in the NCCC and the Pequot Football Conference. Two of Avon’s top 10 games of the 2000s, as determined by Avon Football Online, came against Tolland. Coming in at No. 8 was Avon’s 21-13 win over Tolland in 2008. That game was between the two top teams in the Pequot’s Uncas Division. Coming at No. 2 was Avon’s 21-14 win in 2007 as Kyle Livingstone scored on a 28-yard TD pass from David Wyrick with nine seconds left as the Falcons rallied from a 14-point deficit to earn the win.

East Catholic 30, Avon 14
At Manchester
Avon (0-2)                           7    7  0    0 – 14
East Catholic (2-0)              0  16  0  14 – 30
First quarter
A: Leon Asberry 46 run (Jack Jones kick)
Second quarter
EC: Marc Zazzaro 1 run (Matt Byam pass from Aric Graves)
A: Tommy Donovan 10 pass from Dylan Burgos (Jones kick)
EC: Zazzaro 23 run (Josh Mendoza run)
Fourth quarter
EC: Zazzaro 65 run (pass fails)
EC: Zazzaro 49 run (Tito Pasqualoni pass from Graves)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: East Catholic – Marc Zazzaro 15-201, Conor Hills 11-57, Josh Mendoza 6-18, Dan Evans 4-16, Jake Sylvester 1-8, Mike Soper 3-4; Avon – not available at this time
PASSING: East Catholic – Aric Graves 3-4-0, 112; Chris Daly 1-2-1, 22, Josh Mendoza 1-1-0, 2; Marc Zazzaro 0-1-1, 0; Avon – not available at this time
RECEIVING: East Catholic – Matt Byam 3-112, Mike Soper 1-22, Tito Pasqualoni 1-2; Avon – not available at this time
INTERCEPTIONS: Tommy Donovan (A), Spencer Jones (A)

Since 2009, the Collinsville Press has been providing award-winning coverage of sports and news in the Farmington Valley and across Connecticut.

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