MANCHESTER - Manchester West High School’s football team headed to Bedford Saturday, Oct. 6, to take on a streaking Bulldogs team. The Blue Knights struggled to a 48-14 loss, falling back to 3-3 on the season.

“Our motto for the week was, ‘chaos by confusion,’” West head coach Jimmy Lauzon said.
Lauzon could not create the chaos he had hoped for. The Bedford offense proved too potent, racking up over 300 yards of total offense while finding the endzone seven times.

Bedford quarterback James Caparell was Lauzon’s main concern heading into the game. Caparell ended the game with three passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown.

“We were going to try to confuse them with a couple different looks and trying to cause some chaos for number five,” Lauzon said. “He’s a good ball player, so we were just trying to give him some different looks. He was very calm, cool and collected. We were trying to move him around a little bit, but he didn’t seem to be fazed by it.”

Needless to say, Lauzon was not pleased with the way his team played. During the team’s film session on Monday, Oct. 8, Lauzon said he could not find many positives.

“We didn’t execute,” he said. “We watched the film today and realized, one or two people make a mistake and it makes the whole team look bad.”

Lauzon said none of his players particularly stood out in the blowout. The Blue Knights could never get their offense moving with consistency, and their defense was outmatched against Caparell and the quick Bedford attack.

“When you lose 48-14, nobody really plays well,” he said. “Statistically, I know Jared Camire caught a touchdown and had a nice game, and Hank Pineault had eight or nine tackles on defense. And Zach Ziemba had an interception, which was nice.”

After the loss, West has four games remaining on the schedule. With the next two games at home, Lauzon said the Blue Knights’ place in the standings will likely be defined before they head to road games against Manchester Memorial and the regular season-closing game against Dover.
The Blue Knights next test is Friday, Oct. 12, against Spaulding – a team that gave Lauzon trouble in their matchup last fall.

“They kicked our butts last year, so we’re going to have to be ready for them,” Lauzon said. “Then we’ve got Keene, so I think the next two games are going to kind of tell us where we’re at for the end of the season – whether we’re a playoff team.”