Vinal/Coginchaug took a stunning 8-6 lead over unbeaten Farmington at the half at Palmer Field Saturday night and in order to make that stand up, the V/C coaches stressed to their players that the first series of the second half would be pivotal. Stop Farmington on its first possession and the Hawks would have a chance to take control, they said.

But on the second half's first play, V/C coach Bob McNamara's worst nightmare came true. The Indians' Brandon Williard (10 carries, 144 yards) bolted 74 yards up the left sideline for a touchdown and just like that, everything changed.

"We got caught up inside, the kid took it to the outside and that was it," said McNamara. With a two-point conversion run, Farmington led 14-8. The Indians tacked on another touchdown and a field goal and won the Nutmeg League game 24-8.

"I guess we had to clear the cobwebs out in the first half," said Farmington coach Jeff Bemis. "We hadn't played in two weeks and it took a while to start playing. But we were much better in the second half and, yeah, that first play didn't hurt."

V/C dominated the first half. The Hawks had 152 yards offense to Farmington's 74 and likely should have had a bigger lead than 8-6. But despite having the ball for more than seven minutes to open the game and driving from their own 21 to the Farmington 13, the Hawks once again couldn't convert in the red zone.

"Ahhh, we shot our toenails off again," said McNamara. "Had we been able to punch it in then, who knows?"

Farmington put together a 16-play, 81-yard drive to take a 6-0 lead with 4:23 left in the first half. The drive stayed alive when Bemis gambled on a fourth-and-1 at his own 28-yard line.

The touchdown came on a pretty 27-yard pass from Todd Marsh to Drew DeBari, a play that came after a 10-yard hand to the back penalty against the Indians which seemingly halted the drive.

V/C's score -- its first points of the year -- were set up when Todd Larese picked off a Marsh pass at the 50-yard line with 50 seconds left in the half. Five plays later and with 15 seconds showing, Todd Manjuck hit Larese from 38 yards out to tie the game. Manjuck's conversion pass to Mike Cabelus put the Hawks ahead.

But that lead lasted only the final 15 seconds of the first half and the first 21 seconds of the second.

V/C hung around after that lightning bolt TD by Williard until a fumble by Cabelus in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter set up Farmington's clinching score. Cabelus turned the ball over at his own 33-yard line and after a 22-yard run by Williard, Dan Legere ran 11 yards for the score. With Sean Garvey's kick, the Indians were home free at 21-6.

Garvey kicked a window-dressing 25-yard field goal with 2:46 left in the game. Farmington wound up with 292 yards offense -- 213 on the ground -- to V/C's 223.

"We're doing a lot of things better," said McNamara. "But we still made some mistakes that hurt. But the kids are supposed to play hard -- and they do. So we'll show up Friday night against Berlin (Palmer Field, 7 p.m.) and try to beat them."