Simsbury’s Tyler Veratti (8) and Mercer Smith (41) close in on Conard’s Tyler Walsh (5) during Thursday night’s CCC Tier 1 game in West Hartford.
WEST HARTFORD, Oct. 19, 2023 – Football, like life, isn’t always fair.
Simsbury High football coach Dave Masters has seen his Trojan team put in the work in practice. But few rewards were coming to the Trojans, especially in the win column.
“They’re good in practice. They work hard. They are never late for practice,” he said. “They’re always at practice. They don’t make excuses and always do the right thing. Good things are coming for them. It’s a matter of time.”
Masters and his Trojan football team had plenty of smiles on their faces as Simsbury snapped a nine-game losing streak Thursday night with a 30-13 win over Conard in Central Connecticut Conference Tier I action at Bob McKee Stadium.
Simsbury QB Patrick Matyczyk completed 11-of-17 passes for 142 yards and three touchdowns while Chad Mairano ran for a game-high 122 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries. He also caught four passes for 49 yards.
“It’s nice for them to experience something I know they should have had before this part of the season,” Masters said. “I just couldn’t get them there. (We) are good enough to beat teams and compete. But they hadn’t figured out to win (yet) so it was nice for all of them.”
Simsbury (1-5, 1-2 CCC Tier 1) led 7-0 after Shane Butler caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Matyczyk and the extra point from Nolan Pendergast. The Red Wolves (1-5, 0-3 CCC Tier I) tied the game on a 23-yard run by QB Brady Cersosimo.
Simsbury took a 9-7 lead when Noah Herbeck tackled a runner in the end zone for a safety. Later in the second quarter, Matyczyk found Alex Medina for a 24-yard touchdown reception and a 16-7 lead.
Conard nearly scored at the end of the second quarter but a pass into the end zone as time expired was batted away by a Simsbury defender. The Red Wolves had a first down on the Simsbury 17 with 12 seconds remaining when Cersosimo completed a 10-yard pass to Derek Perez to the seven-yard line.
Cersosimo’s next pass was incomplete and the half ended.
On Simsbury’s first drive of the second half, the Trojans marched 61 yards on four plays with Mairano scoring up the middle from 41 yards away to give Simsbury a 23-7 advantage.
Simsbury gave up one yard on Conard’s next possession to force a punt. Matyczyk completed a 24-yard pass to Medina to push the ball to the Conard 34-yard line. Four plays later, Simsbury faced fourth down and six from the Red Wolves’ 30-yard line.
Matyczyk lofted up a pass that Andrew Kerwin pulled in at the goal line to enable Simsbury to extend their lead to 30-7.
Simsbury drove 73 yards to the Conard one-yard line but couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone. Conard took over and drove 99 yards on 12 yards before Cersosimo scored up the middle on a 36-yard run to cut the lead to 30-13. But that would be as close as the Red Wolves could get.
Simsbury beat Conard for the fifth time in the last six contests.
“We were able to recover from our mistakes,” Masters said. “We made plenty of mistakes but what we didn’t do was let them compound. We didn’t let one mistake go to the next mistake to the next mistakes. We were able to put down our foot a little bit and go.”
After a bitter six-point loss to East Hartford two weeks ago, 38-32, Masters was pleased to see his team create positive memories with the victory before they host Southington (3-2) next Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Holden Field.
Simsbury’s last win came nearly a year ago to the day. In 2022, the Trojans beat Manchester on Oct. 20 before losing the final four games of the 2022 campaign.
Simsbury 30, Conard 13
At West Hartford
Simsbury (1-5) 7 9 14 0 — 30
Conard (1-5) 7 0 0 6 — 13
First quarter
S: Shane Butler 16 pass from Patrick Matyczyk (Nolan Pendergast kick)
C: Brady Cersosimo 23 run (Nate Blumes kick)
Second quarter
S: Safety. Noah Herbeck tackles runner in end zone
S: Alex Medina 24 pass from Matyczyk (Pendergast kick)
Third quarter
S: Chad Mairano 41 run (Pendergast kick), 6:55
S: Andrew Kerwin 30 pass from Matczyk (Pendergast kick), 2:30
Fourth quarter
C: Cersosimo 36 run (run fails), 6:43
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Simsbury – Chad Mairano 15-122, Jacob Isabel 7-41, Travis Bolognese 7-11, Patrick Shanley 2-4; Conard – Brady Cersosimo 9-71; Nate Blumes 15-41
PASSING: Simsbury – Patrick Matyczyk 11-17-0, 142; Conard – Brady Cersosimo 27-39-0, 186
RECEIVING: SImsbury – Alex Medina 3-53, Andrew Kerwin 3-49, Chad Mairano 4-29, Shane Butler 1-16
