Comets end historical football season
By Mike D’Agruma
AURORA — Coventry High School football coach Jay Newcome will have about nine months to let the emotional whirlwind of high hopes and heartbreak he went through Nov. 4 to settle.
Newcome, the fourth-year coach and media specialist at the high school, officially put his own mark in the 200-year-old history book of Coventry Township by being the first football coach at Coventry High School to lead a team into the state playoffs. Led by a talented group of seniors, Newcome guided a good part of his 2005 4-6 team to an 8-2 regular season record and an eighth-seed postseason slot.
Unfortunately for the Comets, their season was ended by top-seeded Aurora High School (10-1), a team hardened and battle-tested by its 2005 playoff push.
The Comets would take everything they had with them to Aurora High School and leave it all on the field in a 29-6 loss to the Greenmen. In a game predicted to be a high-scoring shootout, Aurora came in packing significantly more heat as the team managed to put up a staggering 421 yards of total offense compared to 205 for the Comets. Coventry was outgained 247-68 going into halftime.
Greenmen quarterback Wes Miller was both effective and efficient in leading his team to victory. He was 10-18 for 177 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in addition to scrambling for 40 yards and two scores.
Of course, Miller was able to work more productively behind a line that cleared the way for Aurora backs to pick up an additional 204 yards on the ground. The team rushed for a total of 244 yards on 49 carries.
Miller’s Coventry counterpart, Chase Carris, was limited to 11-35 passing for 181 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He led the Comets to their one score after hooking up with one of his favorite targets this season, receiver Eric Street, for a 34-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter. Street finished the game with 98 yards receiving.
The usually sure-armed Carris didn’t benefit from the same team support Miller did. His backs only managed to produce 24 yards on 17 carries. In addition, with the Comets playing from behind for the entirety of the game, Carris was forced to make tough plays as Aurora was able to drop back into coverage after shutting down the run.
|
