Foran off to first 5-0 start in two decades

BRANFORD — Despite a few turnovers Friday night, Foran is off to its best start in two decades.

The Lions are now 5-0 after scoring 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to roar past Branford, 35-14, in a Southern Connecticut Conference Tier 3 football contest.

“It’s been a long time,” Foran coach Tom Drew said. “Anytime you come in here and beat Branford, it’s a huge win. We’re 5-0, but we want to go 1-0 each week.”

What was a 14-7 Foran lead at halftime changed dramatically as both teams played the turnover game.

A fumble by Foran running back Matt Miller (17 carries for 108 yards) on the first play of the second half gave Branford a chance to tie it right away.

And the Hornets did just that when Zach Turbert connected with Cole Snider for the second time for a touchdown, a 16-yarder in which Snider carried two Foran defenders into the end zone.

The Lions came back just over three minutes later when Jack Cushman (11for-18 passing for 243 yards) connected with Josh Smith for the second time for a touchdown to give Foran the lead for good at 20-14 with 6:07 to play in the third quarter.

Then the turnover bug hit Branford really hard.

A fumble by Nate Florio gave Foran good field position and the Lions took advantage when Cushman connected with Joe Gaetano for the second time for a touchdown, this on]e from 19 yards out to make it 28-14 with 5:22 to play in the quarter.

“We made our fair share of mistakes as well,” Drew said. “Anytime you score a touchdown after a turnover and you capitalize on it, it’s big for momentum.”

Less than five minutes later, Foran took advantage of another Branford miscue. The Hornets forced the Lions to punt, but the punt hit off of James Glover and was recovered by Foran at the Branford 40. Two plays later, Cushman threw his fifth touchdown pass of the night, this time to Jack Pietrosanti from 25 yards out with just 34 seconds to play in the third quarter.

“We saw the secondary was their weak point,” Cushman said. “They lost a lot of their corners and safeties from last year, so we wanted to take shots downfield and we did that.”

“I think our inability to stop the pass was the issue tonight,” Branford coach John Limone said. “We made so many mental errors. We just didn’t play well.”

And turnovers killed the hosts at inopportune times.

“They won the turnover battle and they turned them into points,” Limone said. “You can’t compete when things like that happen. You flat out can’t.”

It took a while for both teams to feel each other out in the first half.

It took almost 10 minutes for either team to get on the board and that came when Turbert (12-for-25 for 152 yards passing) hit Snider for a 22-yard scoring pass.

The Lions came right back in just three minutes with Cushman teaming up with Gaetano for a 22-yard pass play of their own to knot things at 7-7 with 11:15 to play before halftime.

An interception by James Cobain set up Foran’s second touchdown of the night, a 53-yard scoring strike from Cushman to Smith with 3:07 before intermission.

Branford had a great chance to tie things before the break as the Hornets drove all the way to the Foran 8-yard line. But Snider was stopped short of the goal line on a pass reception on the final play of the first half.