Conant bends but doesn't break against Bartlett

Visiting Bartlett spent all night putting in cracks in Conant's defense, as the Hawks came up with 381 yards of offense.

But they were unable to break it completely, and the host Cougars came with ways to seal enough of those cracks with some big plays of their own in a 25-22 win at Feutz Field on Friday evening in the season opener for both teams.

The Conant defense:

• Stifled a pair of Hawk drives deep in Cougar territory during the first half, leading to a pair of Alex Trianos field goal misses of 26 and 37 yards.

• Forced an interception of Bartlett quarter Brenner Wallace (28-39-314 yards passing) in addition to recovering 3 Hawks fumbles, capped off by the play of the night when senior linebacker Ross Cayley forced Wallace to fumble, and senior linebacker Odell Andrews scampered after a bounce off the Feutz Field turf 45 yards for the game-sealing score with 1:34 to play in the game as the Hawks were driving down 18-15 on a fourth down and 7 at the Cougar 47.

“It was all hustle on my part. We needed to make a big play,” Andrews said. “I think it's both our leadership (with 22 seniors on the roster) plus our conditioning. I felt like we were starting to wear their lines down at the end.”

The Cougars' offense got going after spotting the visitors the first 7 points.

Conant senior Kyle Bradley's 22-yard run got the home team on the scoreboard with 1:42 to go in the first half, pulling the Cougars to within 7-6 at the half.

A 95-yard pass play to Palmer Graham on Conant's second possession of the second half gave the Cougars their first lead of the night at 12-7 with 6:40 left in the third.

After a Wallace 3-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Sheahan put the Hawks back in front 15-12 with 6:24 to go in the final period of play, Conant against answered.

Bradley (7-for-15, 158 yards) connected on a 13-yard pass to Brandon Vinson that set up senior tailback Jake Jakubosky, who closed the drive with 47 of his 88 total rushing yards for the night of four straight runs, the last from 12 yards out with 4:22 left to give Conant the lead for good at 18-15 and setting up Andrews' game-saving heroics on the subsequent drive.

“That was a good, physical team that we just beat,” said Conant coach Bill Modelski. “They're well-coached. They gave us a heck of a challenge tonight. I'm really proud of our guys and how they responded.”