Brendan Sawyer steps in at quarterback, Weston rolls past Stratford

STRATFORD — Weston came into Penders Field Friday night with quarterback James Goetz on the sidelines with an injury.

It didn’t matter at all.

One of the Sawyer twins, Brendan, moved from wide receiver to quarterback and performed admirably as the Trojans remained undefeated in four games with a 47-14 victory over Stratford in a South-West Conference contest.

Outside of three plays last week in a 7-6 win over Northwest Catholic, Sawyer had never played quarterback before. But it sure didn’t look like it as he ran for four touchdowns and passed for another to twin brother, Jack.

“It really helps when you have this coaching staff simplifying everything,” Sawyer said. “I just got the basics and built on that, but it’s easier when the offensive line opened holes everywhere.”

Weston coach Dan Hassett was happy with Sawyer’s emergency start.

“We’re giving Jimmy some rest after he got banged up last week,” Weston coach Dan Hassett said. “Both of the Sawyer boys are good athletes.”

Despite the lopsided score, it was the host Red Devils who got on the board first.

On the first play from scrimmage, Stratford quarterback Trey Lanham connected with a wide open Kaleb Lafontant down the left sideline for a 42-yard touchdown pass. Unfortunately, for Lanham, his night didn’t last long as he injured an ankle in the first half and was with crutches on the Red Devils’ sideline in the second half.

“We talk about ebb and flow in a football game,” Hassett said. “They got on us right away with a good kick return and the little hitch and go got us. But I was pleased with the maturity of our football team.”

And the other Sawyer brother, Jack, made sure the Trojans wouldn’t trail long as he took the ensuing kickoff and raced up the middle of the field to the sideline in front of the Weston bench for a 90-yard kickoff return to tie it at 7-7 just 29 seconds into the contest.

Just six minutes later, Weston took the lead for good when Brendan Sawyer connected with Jack Sawyer for a 52-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-7.

After that, Brendan Sawyer took control of the scoresheet, racing for touchdowns of 2, 2, 1 and 6 yards as the Trojans erupted for a 40-7 lead after three quarters.

Bradley Barcello, who rushed for 97 yards on 12 carries, put the finishing touches in Weston’s scoring with a 21-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 47-7 with 8:08 left in the game.

Lafontant added a 14-yard run in the closing minutes for his second touchdown of the night for Stratford.

Weston, which has a bye next weekend, has now scored 35 or more points in three of its four outings.

“We’re happy with our start, but to be honest, we just try to go 1-0 each week,” Weston coach Dan Hassett said. “We just wanted to make sure we got a win this week.”

Stratford, which was led by Sy’air James with 33 yards rushing, is winless in four games.

“They (Weston) were a good team with a lot of senior starters,” Stratford coach Jack Petion said. “We’re just young and we had a couple injuries tonight. They are playing hard, but we have a lot of first-time players.”

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Brendan Sawyer, Weston. The quarterback rushed for 81 yards and four touchdowns and was 4-of-12 passing for 90 yards and a touchdown.

QUOTABLE

“You could drive a truck through those holes. Put those four touchdowns on the linemen, not me.” — Weston quarterback Brendan Sawyer.