Game of the Week: Pittsfield Looks for 3-0 Start at Mount Greylock

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock and Pittsfield High School football teams come into Saturday night's game heading in opposite directions.

 

The Generals (2-0) are soaring on the strength of two narrow victories in Weeks 1 and 3 -- both times holding off a comeback bid in the closing seconds.

 

The Mounties (1-2) have suffered a couple of tough losses on the scoreboard and to their lineup over the last two weeks, getting outscored 62-8 in the process.

 

Saturday's host started last week's game without the services of its top receiver, Michael McCormack, and ended it without its top rusher, Patrick Storie.

 

"There isn't really a timetable [for McCormack's return]," Mount Greylock coach Shawn Flaherty said after last week's 36-0 loss to Hoosac. "When Michael's better and he's cleared, that's when he comes back. But right now, there's no indication when he'll be back."

 

The teams have one common opponent -- Monument Mountain -- which Pittsfield beat and which beat Mount Greylock. Based on this years's records alone, this one looks like a walk for Pittsfield.

 

Don't be fooled.

 

Mount Greylock showed in Week 1  that it has talent and resiliency in a comeback win over Commerce. Hidden behind the blowout final score last week in Cheshire is the fact that it was a two-score game (14-0) in the third quarter when Storie left with an apparent injury to his right leg.

 

And it's still Mount Greylock, a program one-year removed from a three-year run of consecutive Western Mass Super Bowl titles. It is a fair bet that Pittsfield's players have been spending more time thinking about last year -- a 28-6 Mount Greylock win at Wahconah Park -- than last week.

 

"They're still one of the premier programs in Western Mass," Pittsfield coach Brian Jezewski said. "Coach Flaherty year in and year out does a great job. This will be a tremendous challenge for our program.

 

"If we want to be up with the bigger programs in Berkshire County, this is a big week."

 

If the Mounties want to challenge Pittsfield, they will have to figure out a way to stop the two-headed monster that is Chad Shade and Devon Tucker. The Generals' dynamic duo accounted for 38 points in last week's 43-42 win at Chicopee Comp.

 

Shade and Tucker are two members of a large senior class that has allowed Pittsfield to pick up a couple of "character wins" in the early going.

 

"In years past, Pittsfield High -- even before I got here and since I've been here -- always found ways to lose those games," Jezewski said. "With the senior leadership we have and everyone top to bottom buying into what the ideas of the program are, we were able to win.

 

"We still need to improve in all three aspects of the game. We've had a really good couple of days of practice. ... Guys understand what's ahead of them."

 

Mount Greylock-Pittsfield on Saturday night will wrap up "Bye-bye, bye" week in Berkshire County football. All nine of the county's teams take to the gridiron this weekend, with four intra-county matchups and a league game for McCann Tech in the Tri-County.

 

It starts beneath the Friday night lights of South County, where Wahconah (3-0) rolls into Lee (2-1). Down the road in Great Barrington, Hoosac Valley (3-0) faces a Monument Mountain (1-2) team that is a Pittsfield goalline stand away from having a winning record.

 

The Hurricanes would be well advised to remember the Spartans and not look ahead to their Week 5 showdown against Wahconah.

 

Speaking of Wahconah (and most conversations about Berkshire County football tend to), it hung 42 points on Drury last week. But the Blue Devils (1-1) showed they can hang with anyone who cannot throw the ball like Nick Clayton. Look for Drury to look more like the team that nearly shut out Greenfield when it meets travels to Pittsfield to face Taconic (1-2), a team looking to bounce back from last week's loss to Lee.

 

The McCann Tech Hornets (2-0) finally get to play a home game after winning two on the road and enjoying a bye to start the season. Smith Voc (0-3) managed just a fourth-quarter safety last week against Pathfinder, but that gave the Vikings three 2-pointers in their last two weeks. McCann's offense should be careful -- especially if finds itself in the shadow of its goalline.