Game of the Week: Hoosac-Wahconah Rematch
The Berkshire County football championsip race will either become a lot more clear or get a whole lot fuzzier under the Friday night lights.
Hoosac Valley (5-0, 4-0 league) could make things a whole lot simpler if it stays unbeaten.
But there is nothing simple about the Hurricanes' rivalry game against Wahonah, which has produced low-scoring classics the last two seasons.
A Hoosac will preserve the Hurricanes' hopes for an undisputed county championship.
A Wahconah victory? That means the county could have as many as four teams taking one league loss into the penultimate week of the season.
Of course, Hoosac-Wahconah is about more than just the standings.
"It's a huge game for us here at Wahconah, and it's a huge game, I'm sure, for them," said Gary Campbell, the coach at Wahconah (3-2, 2-1). "It's a rivalry game. It's something all kids on both teams look forward to.
"So it's time to buckle them up and get ready for them."
Neither Wahconah nor Hoosac Valley may look like the same team offensively that started the season.
Wahconah last week turned to Evan Garvey to carrry the load in the rushing game against Drury. Campbell declined to talk about the status of Tyler Cataldi, who had been the feature back the first half of the season.
At Hoosac Valley, coach Dayne Poirot has been taciturn about the health of starting quarterback Matt Koperniak, who was injured in Week 4. Koperniak dressed but did not play last week against Monument Mountain.
The good news for both teams is that they had the depth to fill both those roles. Garvey ran for 182 yards and three touchdowns against the Blue Devils. Nicholas Waterman has ably directed Hoosac's high-powered running attack.
Speaking of players with health issues, Cole Morrison returned to the lineup for Wahconah last week after sitting out the first month of the season. He did not play the whole game, but then neither did any of the Wahconah starters in a 40-6 win. Morrison did make an impact on both sides of the ball in a tuneup for Week 6.
The last two seasons, Wahconah has come out on top of this one by identical scores of 8-7 and gone on to win the league.
Elsewhere in the Berkshire County league on Friday night, Taconic (4-1) looks to stay in the title picture when it entertains Drury (0-5). And Lee (2-3) tries to bolster its playoff hopes when it visits Mount Greylock (2-3), a team that has wrapped two wins around a competitive game against Hoosac in its last three outings.
The Berkshire County League schedule concludes on Saturday with a rare 3 p.m. kickoff in Great Barrington between Monument Mountain (1-3) and Pittsfield (4-1).
In the Tri-County, first-place McCann Tech (4-1, 4-0) looks to bounce back from its first loss of the season (to Mount Greylock) when it travels Friday night to face winless Dean Tech (0-5), a 28-0 victim earlier this year against Pathfinder, whom McCann beat, 2-0, in Week 4.