Dufour does it for Rockville in lopsided win over Coginchaug
DURHAM — With just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter, Rockville senior Jaquan Dufour caught a pass from John O’Coin at about the 5-yard line, carried two Coginchaug/East Hampton/Hale Ray defensive backs to the goal line and spun free into the turf for his third touchdown of the game and seventh unanswered score for the Rams.
Dufour handed the football to the referee, celebrated quickly with a few teammates and held three fingers up. On his way out of the end zone, he stopped to shake hands with Coginchaug junior Jackson Moore, who was one of the many Blue Devils assigned to slow down Dufour.
The Rams (5-0) were up by almost 30 points at this point and Dufour was starting to have fun.
“I have a lot of respect for [Moore],” Dufour said. “He’s an amazing athlete.” Dufour then smiled. “But, yeah, I guess I was just on my game this game,” he said.
He was, and as much as the Blue Devils (2-2) tried to contain the 6-foot-2 receiver, they failed. He caught eight passes for 186 yards and four touchdowns as Rockville, ranked sixth in The Courant’s area poll, scored 40 unanswered points to beat the Coginchaug co-op 52-19.
Dufour caught his first touchdown from O’Coin with 28 seconds left before halftime, as his quarterback found him relatively open in the back right corner of the end zone from 15 yards out. Dufour scored again on Rockville’s third play of the second half on a screen pass which he took 72 yards for a touchdown.
He scored his third and fourth touchdowns in the third quarter, with the latter being a 37-yard catch-andrun shallow post route.
“I just know if I put it in his hands, he can make pretty much anything happen,” said O’Coin, who passed for 239 yards and the four touchdowns.
Rockville coach Erick Knickerbocker noted that they had been looking to get the ball in Dufour’s hands as much as possible through the first four games of the season, though teams were quick to double- and tripleteam him.
Rockville’s offense didn’t catch fire until late in the second quarter. The Blue Devils took an early 12-0 lead in the first quarter as junior quarterback Aaron Faiella accounted for two touchdowns — one to junior Tyler Garretson from 13 yards out and another on a quarterback keeper from 6 yards out.
It wasn’t until early in the second quarter, when Coginchaug turned the ball over on downs on Rockville’s side of the field, that Knickerbocker felt his team had settled in.
“I think we just came in sleep walking and they came in ready to take our heads off,” he said. “They almost did. If they scored again there [when they turned the ball over], it’s a whole different game.”
Faiella looked untouchable in the first quarter, and Garretson had made seven receptions, including the touchdown, as the duo sliced up Rockville’s secondary. Knickerbocker moved sophomore Deshaun Perry (three catches, 108 yards, three touchdowns) in to cover Garretson, which proved to be effective as the 6-5 receiver was held without a catch for the remainder of the game.
Junior Kevin Foley scored a 1-yard rushing touchdown for Rockville on the following possession. The Rams then forced another turnover on downs, and O’Coin found Perry from 17 yards out on the ensuing Rockville drive to take a 13-12 lead. The Rams maintained an advantage for the remainder of the game.
“I think our defense and offense in the first quarter came out flat and we had a lot of adjustments to make,” Dufour said. “Once we went inside for halftime, we adjusted the defense, adjusted the offense, see what attacking points we could hit and performed.”
Rockville outscored the Blue Devils 34-7 in the second half, as Dufour caught three of his touchdowns. Perry caught another and senior Jason Clarke broke free for a 73-yard rushing score.
The Blue Devils, who punted four times in the second half, scored for the first time since the first quarter with 2:15 to go in the third as Faiella and Moore connected for a 29-yard touchdown.
“That’s the biggest thing if you want to be a really good team: That next group of guys has to step up,” Knickerbocker said of Perry and Clarke, among others.
Rockville will have its bye this week and return to action the following week at Gilbert/Northwestern. In the postgame huddle Saturday, Knickerbocker urged his players to avoid any talk of potentially going 10-0.
“We come into games, and we’re not thinking, ‘Oh, we’re better than them.’ ” Dufour said.
“We think of a team as just as good as us. We just go perform.”
Eric Pino ran for four of Windsor Lock co-op’s eight touchdowns in a Pequot interdivision home win over Morgan. Jonathan Salavier added two scores on the ground and Matt Raine had touchdowns on a reception and kick return for the Raiders (4-1).
For Morgan (0-5), Garrett Garbinski caught two touchdowns from quarterback Andrew Nye.