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Farrell leads South offense into playoffs

Year experience benefits quarterback

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
   One of Connor Farrell’s best attributes as a quarterback is his ability to think on the fly.
   That came in handy last year when, in just the third game of his sophomore season, he was thrust into the starting role for West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
   ”There is no question that what he went through last year helped him become a better quarterback,” said WW-P South coach Todd Smith. “He came into the Lawrence game late, then he had to play Hamilton that next game, which was a tough first game as a starter. But since that game, he’s gone 13-2 as a starter.”
   Farrell went from sophomore backup to sophomore starter a year ago when Colin Dampier went down with an injury. Now, eight games into his junior year, he’s a veteran signal caller who is about to start his second state playoff game.
   Farrell and the Pirates earned the No. 2 seed for the Central Jersey Group III playoffs and will host seventh-seeded Jackson Memorial Saturday at 1 p.m. Last year, Farrell was the starter at quarterback when the Pirates lost an opening-round game to Howell, 26-18.
   ”I think I’ve just grown more confident as a quarterback,” said Farrell, who has passed for 1,412 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. “This past offseason I worked a lot on my game. And I also have more experience. I think playing last year helped a lot. I learned a lot from that. We lost the first game I played, then we had the North game and that was a big atmosphere with all the fans.”
   Last year Farrell stepped into a situation where he was rarely counted on to make a big difference on offense. With Ryan Lupo rushing for nearly 1,800 yards and Stuart Adams adding over 500, the Pirates did most of their damage on the ground.
   But this year has been a different story. In eight games, South has been about as balanced as you can be on offense. They’ve passed for 1,458 yards and rushed for 1,536.
   ”I like the balance in our offense,” said Farrell, who has completed 58.4 percent of his passes and also rushed for three touchdowns. “We can do a lot of different things. When teams try to stop our running game, that opens things up for our passing game. And we started off with more of a short passing game, and when teams try to stop that it opens things up for deeper balls.”
   Last year, Farrell completed 42 passes for 755 yards. He had six touchdown passes and threw five interceptions. With a year of experience under his belt heading into this season, he’s put up much bigger numbers. He has completed 80 passes and thrown just four interceptions in 137 attempts.
   ”We knew we would be passing more this year with Ryan gone,” said Farrell, who also plays lacrosse for the Pirates. “So I tried to do more stuff over the summer. We’d get together and throw the ball around and run laps. I got to know what the receivers liked to do.”
   Farrell has developed quite a connection with a number of his receivers, spreading the ball around quite well. There are five different Pirate receivers with at least 10 catches, led by J.B. Fitzgerald with 20 catches. He’s connected with Jeff Riemann 14 times, eight for touchdowns.
   ”The great thing about Connor is that he is ego free,” Smith said. “He’ll do anything to help the team. Another thing that makes him special at the high school level is that he has the ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage. He can switch plays and put us in a better position to be successful.
   ”He has done his homework and understands how to read fronts and coverages and knows where the linebackers have to fill the gaps. He’s done a real good job.”
   Now he’ll need to be at the top of his game when the Pirates face Jackson Memorial, which is 5-4. The Jaguars had won three straight games before losing to Manalapan, 15-0, last week.
   ”We know from watching them in film that they’re pretty tough and will try to play smash-mouth football against us,” Farrell said. “We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
   The Jaguars have been shut out twice this season, but in their five wins they have averaged 31 points a game. So they are a team that certainly has the ability to score points.
   ”I’ve actually seen them in person a couple times and a couple times on film,” Smith said. “They’re your typical Shore Conference team. They’re tough and they play a very physical style. The games I have seen they have really tried to impose their will on the teams they were playing.”