By Bill Sones — Sports Contributor
The CCHS gridiron Patriots finished their season with a convincing 35-7 win on a cold, rainy Thanksgiving morning at Lexington High School — 100 years after the Minutemen won the rivals’ first Turkey Day matchup.
The Patriots started quickly. After a 36-yard kickoff return by junior running back John DiCesare set up CC at the Lexington 43-yard line, it took the offense only seven plays to get to paydirt with strong runs by freshman running back Thomas Bury and senior quarterback Matthew Carleton, who completed the drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge. (Carleton, a DCL All-Star, would finish the day with 169 yards rushing and three touchdowns.)
Senior Taylor Ladd nailed the extra point to put CC up 7-0. Ladd would go on to kick all five extra points in tough conditions and finish the year with 23 straight extra-point kicks.
Lexington answered the Patriots with an eight-play, 73-yard drive, ending with an 11-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter.
The second quarter opened with the Patriots on the march. The 11-play, 52-yard drive, set up by a 24-yard DiCesare kick return, ended with a 16-yard touchdown run by senior Will Hoover, seeing his first action since mid-October, and CCHS was up 14-7.
The Patriots defense turned up the heat, including a third-down sack by sophomore linebacker Alex Fivek, forcing the Minutemen to punt. Two plays later, Hoover scored his second touchdown of the game to put CCHS up 21-7. After a quick stop of the Minuteman offense, the CCHS offense needed just one play to score again. Carleton’s second rushing touchdown of the game, this time from 35 yards out, pushed the lead to 28-7 at halftime.
The second half saw the rain and wind pick up, and the Patriots’ defense continued its stingy ways. Big plays by junior linebacker David Thut (a team-leading five tackles for the day), Ladd and junior defensive ends Liam King and Declan MacQueen kept the Minutemen off the scoreboard in the second half and held Lexington to just 118 of total offense for the game.
In the third quarter, Carleton closed out the scoring with his team-leading 11th touchdown of the season, this time on a 79-yard run to make the final score 35-7 Patriots.
With the victory, the Patriots finished the season with a 6-5 record and increased their series lead over Lexington to 53-42-7 with a 29-19-4 record on Thanksgiving Day matchups.
