Freshman QB Conlan leads West Haven to victory

FAIRFIELD — The West Haven football team’s approach to offensive football in 2021 is decidedly old-school — run the ball, run the ball and run the ball some more.

And when the Blue Devils decide to pass, they go even older school — starting their first freshman quarterback since the mid-1960s.

On Friday night against Fairfield Warde, the West Haven plan worked well, piling up over 200 yards rushing offense along with freshman quarterback Nick Conlan throwing two touchdowns in a 27-20 victory at Tetreau/Davis Field.

“We think (our offense) suits us really well and now that Nick is throwing the ball well we have confidence he can do that, too,” West Haven coach Rich Boshea said.

By Boshea’s recollection, Conlan is the first freshman to start at quarterback for West Haven since 1964.

The Mustangs (0-4) scored first on a short Joe Valiante touchdown run, which the Blue Devils answered with Conlan’s 10-yard pass to Jamaine Galloway. It made it 7-6 in favor of Warde at the half.

The game changed quickly to start the third quarter.

Paul Williams scored from three yards out on West Haven’s first possession of the half. Warde fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which led to Conlan’s second touchdown pass — this time to Chauncey Evans to make it 21-7.

“I really thought we should have gone into the half up 21-0 and we didn’t,” Warde coach Duncan DellaVolpe said. “We’ve gotten better from where we started but we basically have to limit our mistakes to basically none.”

Down two scores, the Mustangs didn’t go quietly and responded on a 15-yard Lucas Coleman touchdown catch from Charlie Gulbin.

West Haven had trouble handling the next kickoff and took over deep in its own territory with the momentum shifting to Warde. Blue Devils junior Trevor Tompkins stopped that shift, turning a third-and-4 into a 77yard run to set up Amir Nakome’s touchdown.

Tompkins led West Haven with