After their team’s first loss of the season last week, Conner football coach David Trosper told the players they needed to put the setback behind them and focus on their next opponent.
The Cougars followed their coach’s command so well that they rolled to a 42-14 win over Boone County on Friday to even their Class 6A district record at 1-1.
“That’s what you’ve got to do in Class 6A in Northern Kentucky,” Trosper said. “You have to come to play every single week and be prepared. And that’s one of the biggest things we did this week. We got over (the loss) and went to work and concentrated on the things we needed to get better at.”
The Cougars did a much better job on both offense and defense against Boone County than they did in last week’s 56-14 loss to Simon Kenton.
Conner’s offense totaled 529 yards (301 rushing, 228 passing) in Friday’s win behind an impressive performance by senior quarterback Nick West. He rushed for 167 yards on 17 carries, scored three touchdowns and completed 17 of 24 passes for 228 yards and two TDs.
“Coach (Trosper) has been talking about this since Week 1,” West said. “He said we’ve got to get it all together for our district (games). We clearly didn’t have it last week, but it was nice to put it all together this week, and hopefully it’ll continue.”
The Cougars also got the job done on defense in Friday’s game. They limited Boone County to 283 total yards (191 rushing, 91 passing), recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass.
Holding Boone County running back Charles Quainoo to less than 80 yards rushing was a major accomplishment for the Cougars, who weren’t able to contain Simon Kenton tailback Miles Simpson in last week’s loss.
“We saw a great caliber running back last week and another great one this week, and we rise to the occasion this time,” Trosper said. “We got after (Quainoo) and that created a lot of problems for them.”
Conner scored on four of its first five offensive possessions of the game. West was the driving force behind his team’s fast start. During the first half, he rushed and passed for a combined total of more than 200 yards and scored twice.
The biggest play of the first half was a flare pass from West to tight end Anthony Bode that went 74 yards for a touchdown.
In the second half, West scored his third touchdown on a 25-yard run and threw an 11-yard TD pass to senior Brady Fogle.
“I just see it as coach calls the plays and I just do what I have to do,” West said.
Boone County coach Rick Thompson was so impressed with West’s performance that he personally congratulated the Conner quarterback after the game.
“He did a great job,” Thompson said. “He threw the ball well and he ran the ball well. They came out and gave us a little bit of new wrinkle with the option game. We didn’t adjust to it very well, but you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They did a great job with it.”
Both of Boone County’s touchdowns were scored by junior running back Jordan Oppenheimer, who picked up a team-high 78 yards on 15 carries.
“We’re still missing in our passing game on offense a little bit, and I think that really hurts us,” Thompson said. “We’ve just got to get better.”BOONE CO. 0-7-7-0–14
at CONNER 14-14-7-0-7–42
C–West 1 run (Stephens kick)
C–Boden 74 pass from West (Stephens kick)
C–Gill 34 run (Stephens kick)
BC–Oppenheimer 7 run (Palmateer kick)
C–West 4 run (Stephens kick)
C–West 25 run (Stephens kick)
BC–Oppenheimer 5 run (Palmateer kick)
C–Fogle 11 pass from West (Stephens kick)
RECORDS: Conner 6-1, 1-1 Class 6A; Boone County 2-4, 1-1
