No. 9 New London rides running back Zhi'Mir Maddox-Moore to ECC football victory over Ledyard

New London junior Zhi'Mir Maddox Moore bolts 65 yards for a touchdown while the Ledyard defense trails helplessly behind in New London's 27-16 ECC victory at Cannamella Field in New London, Friday, October. 30, 2026 (Sean Patrick Bowley/Hearst Connecticut Media) NEW LONDON - It was a Friday night football matchup of two of the best running backs not only in the ECC, but also in Connecticut. New London's Zhi'Mir Maddox-Moore and Ledyard's Titus Streckfuss both rushed for high yardage totals and combined for five touchdowns. But it's about getting the victory, and on this night, it was New London that came out on top 27-16 at Pat Cannamela Field.The Whalers (7-0) are ranked ninth in the latest GameTimeCT Top 10 poll."They committed to a program. … They get Sundays off. That's it. We go hard the other six. Progress reports. It's been a lot of work. They just keep coming," said New London football coach Jack Cochran, in the first season of his second go-around with the Whalers.As for the running back battle: Maddox-Moore rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries. Streckfuss had 184 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries."Both players are special," Ledyard coach Mike Serricchio said. "They are great representatives of our conference. We are very blessed to have Titus, they are very blessed to have Zyir. Both are juniors, so more to come from them."When Ledyard (5-2) scored to close within 27-16 with 5:49 left, Cochran knew what he had to do: give the ball to Maddox-Moore on every play. Maddox-Moore ran the ball seven consecutive times. Ledyard never got another possession."This is a big win, just one step closer to our goal," Maddox-Moore said.New London quarterback Joziah Rivera-Perry was impressed watching what Maddox-Moore did handoff after handoff."One of the plays, there was a little bit of miscommunication for me. … I just pitched the ball back to him and I don't know, he made something out of nothing."New London jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, which was key against Ledyard's single-wing offense. The Whalers did not jump offsides at all Friday."I've defensed a lot of offenses. That type of offense, you've got to be perfect every play," Cochran said. "We worked on it Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's just amazing how hard they worked at it all week. They wanted this game. Everybody told them they couldn't win."Ledyard's best drive of the first half went all the way to the New London 1-yard line in 10 plays. New London stuffed Ledyard on two straight runs.It was after that second play ended that Ledyard was whistled for a personal foul. That pushed the Colonels back to the 16 for a fourth-down play, which lost yards.Maddox-Moore scored seven plays later to make it 20-0."Put yourself in our kids' shoes, ‘OK, I understand why you did it,' but you know, to ask the kid to have the maturity to understand the situation, fourth-and-1 on the goal-line, the whole thing, that's just high school football, unfortunately. Kids make mistakes," Serricchio said. "That's show biz, you know what I mean? That's a mistake you cannot make in this game and we paid the price for it."Player of the GameZhi'Mir Maddox-Moore, New London, Jr.: He rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries.Quotable"Even when he was in a pile, he always found some way to break it out, get more yardage and get us a first down." - New London quarterback Joziah Rivera-Perry on Zhi'Mir Maddox-Moore.New London 27, Ledyard 16LEDYARD 0 0 8 8-16NEW LONDON 14 6 0 7-27NL-Joziah Rivera-Perry 5 run (Djeff Clerger kick)NL-Zhi'Mir Maddox-Moore 65 run (Clerger kick)NL-Maddox-Moore 37 run (kick blocked)L-Titus Streckfuss 69 run (Jackson Grimm run)NL-Maddox-Moore 1 runL-Streckfuss 26 run (Dorian Greene run)Records: Ledyard 5-2; New London 7-0.Sign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state.This article originally published at No. 9 New London rides running back Zhi'Mir Maddox-Moore to ECC football victory over Ledyard.