SKOWHEGAN — Adam Dusty carried the football 24 times for Skowhegan on Friday night, rushing for 206 yards and three touchdowns. But the most fun Dusty had all night was when he drilled Cony’s intended receiver on a pass play.
“You don’t always get a chance to hit someone like that,” said Dusty, who stands about 5-foot-6, “especially when you’re this small.”
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Dusty and the Indians could afford to be light-hearted, because they controlled the action with their running game. Tyler Savage added 90 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries, and Skowhegan rolled to a 42-30 victory.
Cony’s Ben Lucas completed 11 of 24 passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns, and backup quarterback Nate Nalley threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Jon Saban. But the Rams also made several costly mistakes, including penalties, dropped passes and an onside kick that went backward.
“At any one time, we have five or six sophomores on the field,” Cony coach Robby Vachon said. “So we’re going to take our lumps. We have seen progress. I thought we threw the ball well tonight. It’s just unfortunate to make that many mistakes and we didn’t do a good job stopping the run.”
Skowhegan (3-3) led 8-0 30 seconds into the game after a 47-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion by Dusty. Cony (1-5) came back with a 25-yard field goal by Zac Lachance, and the Rams took their only lead at 10-8 early in the second quarter when Lucas hit Chandler Shostak with a 24-yard scoring pass.
But the Rams killed two drives with false start penalties, and Skowhegan kept churning out yards on the ground — 391 in all. Dusty added two more touchdowns to give the Indians a 22-10 lead at the half.
Cony couldn’t get closer than 11 points in the second half, but Chandler Shostak and Chase Shostak each caught touchdown passes from Lucas. Those were balanced out by Savage’s three touchdowns after the break, which came from 15, 13 and 4 yards out.
While Cony will try to keep building, Skowhegan still has a shot at a playoff berth. Since only four teams in the Pine Tree Conference Class A make the playoffs, Skowhegan needed this game badly to stay in the hunt.
“There’s no room for error in this schedule,” Skowhegan coach Mike Marston said. “Every game, almost, is a playoff game. You can’t stumble, because then you’re out of the playoffs.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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