The St. Joseph High football team scored on all six possessions in the first half en route to a 43-6 victory over Brien McMahon at the Dalling Sports Complex in Trumbull on Saturday.
Cory Babineau threw five touchdown passes for coach Joe Della Vecchia’s Cadets (2-1).
“I thought we played well as a team today,” Della Vecchia said. “We had a good week of practice. The win (50-12) over Ledyard gave the players confidence in the things we can do.”
The Cadets went 70 yards in five plays to open the game, with Babineau hooking up with Jared Mallozzi from 39 yards out. Luke Kirby added the first of six successful conversion kicks.
“I’m in the slot and Cory finds me on quick reads,” said Mallozzi who caught four scoring passes. “Cory sees the field very well.”
McMahon (0-3) playing without a pair of injured captains, showed life on offense but was never able to slow St. Joseph’s passing game nor dent the defense led by Joe Kucky.
Mallozzi was on the receiving end of an 18-yard touchdown pass to complete an 11-yard, 95-yard march with 5:01 still to play in the first quarter.
On the first play of St. Joseph’s next series, Phil Pasmag caught a pass on the McMahon 30 and ran around a stalk block by Mallozzi for a 48-yard score.
Brian Harner, Griffin Cross, Jermaine Williams and Connor Murphy had tackles on McMahon’s next possession to force a punt from the 16. The snap went out of the end zone for a two-point safety and a 23-0 lead with 1:21 left in the first period.
Nick Osborne returned the ensuing free kick to the Senator’s 42-yard line.
Babineau completed passes to Charlie Pagliarini (11 yards), Pasmag (16 yards) and Jaden Shirden (8 yards) before finding Mallozzi open on 4th-and-goal from the one
Murphy beat a block on the edge to force a punt and St. Joseph went 59 yards in eight plays with Shirden bulldozing his way to a 4-yard touchdown. Babineau went 24 yards on a quarterback read and completed a 14-yard pass to Mallozzi to move the chains.
St. Joseph added its last score in the closing minutes of the first half.
On 3rd-and-goal, Babineau was trying to find either Pagliarini or Ryan Donegan but went in the flat to Mallozzi, who one-handed a tipped pass by defender Chandler Greene and scored from 14-yards out.
St. Joseph took a 43-0 lead into the locker room.
McMahon took the third-quarter kickoff and took all but four minutes off the running clock with a 10-play possession before punting the ball away.
The boot was fumbled, but the Senators gave it back two plays later.
Both coaches went to reserves the rest of the way, with McMahon’s Mike Macari breaking off a 53-yard touchdown run on the last play of the game.