Ledyard - The past two weeks have been emotional ones for the Ledyard High School football team, facing off against a pair of playoff contenders in Windham and New London.

Ledyard won both convincingly, but would there be any kind of letdown after those two intense weeks? Apparently not.

Quarterback Ty Ebdon ran for a 67-yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage Friday night, the Colonels scored 37 unanswered points in the second quarter and Ledyard inched its unbeaten streak forward in a 56-14 victory over East Lyme on Senior Night at Bill Mignault Field.

"I think that was the fastest I ever ran. I usually get caught on those," Ebdon said. "JoJo (Shumaker) had one big block. It was because of him I got it. ... If we could score off the kickoff, we would."

"One of the biggest challenges was the mental aspect of it. Can we do it again?" Ledyard coach Jim Buonocore said. "East Lyme has hard runners; they're physical. We wanted to set the tone early."

Ebdon, boosted by his big run, finished with 132 yards rushing on eight carries and also threw three touchdowns, finishing 15-for-20 passing with 166 yards. He actually managed to outrush Shumaker, the Colonels' star back, with Shumaker finishing with 15 carries for 116 yards and three touchdowns.

Ledyard, which already wrapped up a playoff berth and is still in contention to host a Class M state semifinal game, is 10-0 heading into its Thanksgiving Day matchup at Fitch.

Ebdon's running game was one of the night's storylines. Buonocore said his quarterback, a junior, tends to undersell himself in that category.

"He's a good runner. He underestimates his abilities," Buonocore said. "It makes the offense complete, so to speak. It's important to get him involved, so that on Thanksgiving and into the playoffs we have all the facets."

Another was the play of twin seniors Phyllip and River Thomas, who both play wide receiver and defensive back. Introduced as part of the Senior Night festivities prior to the game, the pair combined for three touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

River, who is 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, caught six passes for 60 yards and two touchdowns, had one interception and ripped the ball out of the hands of an East Lyme running back in the third quarter with the Vikings driving, returning it approximately 80 yards.

Phyllip, 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, caught three passes for 62 yards and a touchdown and added an interception.

Phyllip caught a ball in coverage, beat that defender and then outsprinted three more East Lyme players for a 45-yard touchdown to make it 42-7. River scored on Ledyard's next possession from nine yards out, the final drive of the second half, for a 49-7 lead.

"They're special athletes," Buonocore said. "When you talk about the football program or the athletic program in general, when the ball's in their hands, they do some special things. Anything can happen."

Brent Bragaw scored on a 1-yard run in the first quarter for East Lyme (3-6), set up by a 33-yard run from Mike Morgan. Bragaw also threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Morgan to start the second half.

"They're explosive," East Lyme coach Rudy Bagos said of Ledyard. "They can score from anywhere at any time. We tried to stay away from that as much as possible and I thought we did a good job for three of the four quarters, but the second quarter was a blur. They're just hungry."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday