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    Monday, May 13, 2024

    High school football: Jean-Pierre helps Valley Regional/Old Lyme remain unbeaten

    Deep River - Chris Jean-Pierre had a hand, not to mention foot, in every single point as Valley Regionial/Old Lyme remained unbeaten with a 41-12 victory over the Gilbert/NW Regional football team on Friday night.

    Jean-Pierre passed for three scores, ran for two and returned a punt 55 yards for a sixth touchdown.

    He was also forced into place-kicking duties after kicker Jarod Roche suffered an injury in practice Thursday and converted five of six extra points.

    Jean-Pierre completed 11 of 14 passes for 206 yards while rushing 12 times for another 80 yards as the Warriors (6-0) dominated the first half against Gilbert/NW (4-2), building a 35-0 lead.

    "Last week I wasn't real happy even though we won 44-0 (over Cromwell)," Valley/OL coach Tim King said. "I thought we were lethargic and played a lousy game. Tonight was different. Gilbert is a good team that was 4-1 coming in and I knew we had to get after it and that's exactly what we did."

    Andrew Tuscano caught two of Jean-Pierre's touchdown passes (58 and 15 yards), finishing with 79 yards on three receptions. Evan Smith caught the other TD pass (20 yards) and Tyler Boland had three catches for 55 yards, including a key fourth down reception on Valley's opening drive which led to Jean-Pierre's five-yard touchdown run.

    Valley/OL also held Gilbert-NW running back Paxton Franklin to just 33 yards on nine carries. Franklin came into the game averaging nearly 200 yards per game and was just 88 yard short of 1,000 for the season.

    "That was our game plan to shut (Franklin) down and that was pretty impressive by our defense," King said.

    In other games:

    • Thurston Brown combined for 323 total yards and five touchdowns as St. Bernard/Norwich Tech overcame a 30-22 halftime deficit to win its first game of the season with a 64-46 victory over Wolcott Tech. Brown ran 18 times for 267 yards and four touchdowns and had three receptions for 56 yards and another score for the Saints (1-4), who trailed until taking a 42-36 lead late in the third quarter.

    Quarterback Jared Neal also had a big game, rushing for 193 yards on 14 carries and scoring two touchdowns while completing 8 of 11 passes for 85 yards, including a 33-yard TD to Brown. Matt Martinez also rushed for three touchdowns for the Saints, who had 487 yards on 37 caries.

    "It's nice to play a game against a team we can be competitive with," SB/NT coach Sean Ladyga said. "That's what it was tonight. It was great to see the kids work hard and learn to win a game."

    • Jack Riordan rushed for 248 yards on 17 carries and three touchdowns as Stonington beat Killingly 35-0 in an ECC Medium Division game. Riordan had runs of 1, 85 and 68 yards in the first quarter - and followed each with an extra point for a 21-0 lead.

    Conor Feeney had a 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and Amadi Whtie ran 10 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter for the Bears (3-3, 1-2). Matt Mitchell rushed for 73 yards on 12 carries and caught three passes for 41 yards for Stonington.

    • Bacon Academy scored four unanswered touchdowns en route to a 27-13 win over Waterford in an ECC Medium Division game. Jake Mangual threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Justin Keating with 3:06 left in the first quarter to give Waterford (1-5, 1-3) a 6-0 lead, but Sean Kelly threw three touchdown passes before halftime to give Bacon (3-3, 2-2) a 20-6 halftime lead.

    Paul Chasse's 4-yard touchdown pass to Quame Piper in the third quarter upped Bacon's lead to 27-6 before Mangual's 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Spencer Hoagland's extra point was the game's final point.

    • Newtown's defense held Ansonia to 151 yards as it handed the Chargers their first loss in 49 games, 14-8, preventing Ansonia from tying the state record for most consecutive wins. The Chargers (5-1) had won 48 straight games. Cheshire won 49 successive games from 1992-96.

    Newtown (6-0), ranked seventh in The Day's Top 10 state coaches' poll, limited Ansonia to 47 rushing yards on 46 attempts. The No. 3 Chargers averaged 309 yards rushing prior to Friday. Jared Pearson (18 yards) and Nicholas Rubino (4 yards) both ran for Nighthawks touchdowns.

    Ansonia's Tyler Bailey caught a 19-yard touchdown from Jai'Quan McKnight.

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