Ledyard — It began oh-so well for the Ledyard football team Saturday night. A kickoff to Stanley Green. A few shifty moves. An 88-yard touchdown against St. Joseph, the Colonels’ Fairfield County nemesis.

All the good vibes Ledyard gained on that play were quickly buried under a hail of Corey Babineau touchdown passes.

Babineau threw five of his six touchdowns in the first half as the Cadets blitzed Ledyard, 50-12, snapping the Colonels' 19-game home win streak.

Ledyard's last home loss was to New London (7-0) on Nov. 10, 2012.

It was the third time in four seasons that St. Joseph (1-1) beat Ledyard (0-2).

“Playing up against a better team, it showed us how hard we have to work every day,” Colonels senior Manny Deshields-Sanabria said. “It’s not going to get handed to us like past years. Past years, we had a lot of good guys. This year is a lot different. We just have to work.”

Babineau completed 17 of 22 passes for 291 yards for St. Joseph. It lost its season-opener to Darien, the top-ranked team in The Day's Top 10 state coaches’ poll, 48-14.

“I thought he read (the field) pretty well tonight,” Cadets head coach Joe Della Vecchia said about Babineau. “He had great touch on the ball. That’s something that we’ve been working with him the last couple of years. I thought he had a tremendous feel for the receivers’ speed and putting touch on the ball, giving them a chance to make a play.”

Jared Mallozzi had a connection going with Babineau, making nine catches for 136 yards and four touchdowns. Babineau’s other two touchdowns were caught by Philip Pasmeg (four catches, 107 yards).

“There’s some pass defense stuff that we’re going to have to work on,” Ledyard interim coach Mark Farnsworth said. “The kids are going to get better. There’s no doubt about that. Everybody is determined to keep getting better and we’re going to do that.”

Deshields-Sanabria scored on a highlight-film worthy 79 yard run for the Colonels’ other touchdown. He was hit in the backfield, somehow escaped a tackle, bolted around left end and hit the afterburners.

“The nose guard kept coming into the A gap,” Deshields-Sanabria. “He kind of overran it and got a hand on me.

“I said, ‘Alright, I’m not going down.’ I reversed the field, there was nobody over there, so I just ran for it. A lot of credit goes to the receivers on the other side. They blocked for me. I had a couple of cutbacks that broke me free for a touchdown.”

Babineau threw his five first-half touchdowns during a stretch of 10 pass attempts.

St. Joseph’s Joe Kucky recovered a fumble at the Colonels’ 36 with one minute, 45 seconds left in the first half.

Babineau threw a 36-yard touchdown to Pasmeg on the next play to give the Cadets a 34-12 halftime lead.

Jaden Shirden (18 carries, 116 yards) ran for St. Joseph’s last touchdown.

“We improved this week, but it’s not to where we need to be,” Farnsworth said.

n.griffen@theday.com