CHESHIRE, Mass. – On a day when the Hoosac Valley offense took a while to get on track, its defense held Frontier in check.
The result: a 22-7 win and a 6-0 start for the Hurricanes.
Frontier generated 82 yards of offense as Hoosac Valley held an opponent to one score or fewer for the fourth time this fall and improved to 3-0 in the Intercounty South.
“The defense played great today – overall,” Hoosac Valley coach Mike Bostwick said. “A couple of small miscues, but, overall, we’re very proud of the defense.
“Very resilient, very tough on defense. I felt like we had a good defensive game plan, good alignment, good all the way around.”
The offense, meanwhile, lost the ball on downs twice in Frontier’s end of the field and had to punt on fourth-and-13 at midfield in its first three possessions.
Midway through the second, the defense and special teams set up the offense in prime scoring position.
A tackle for a loss of 6 yards on third-and-6 forced Frontier to punt from its own 15, and a 12-yard return by Will Hakes set up the Hurricane offense at the plus-22.
On the first play of the possession, Kadan Tatro scored on a sweep to the right side to give Hoosac Valley a 6-0 lead. Griffin Mucci ran in the conversion to make it an eight-point spread.
Hoosac Valley’s Jayquan Vazquez recovered the ensuing kickoff at Frontier’s 44, and four plays later, Mucci went around the left end and 28 yards for Hoosac Valley’s second touchdown in 1 minute, 38 seconds and a 14-0 lead.
A personal foul on Hoosac Valley on the kickoff gave Frontier possession at the plus-43 with 3:10 on the clock, and the visitors drove to the Hoosac Valley 4 in six plays.
It took four more plays, but the Red Hawks spoiled the Hurricanes’ hopes for a goalline stand by scoring with 7 seconds on the clock. The point after kick was good, and the teams went into the break with the Hurricanes ahead, 14-7.
A Jo Campbell tackle at the line of scrimmage on fourth-and-3 ended Frontier’s first possession of the second half, and Hoosac Valley methodically marched the rest of the way, using just one Kamarion Kastner completion for 12 yards in a 12-play drive that ate up 6:41 and ended in a Mucci plunge from the 1-yard line.
He finished with 50 yards on the ground and a pair TDs to complement the 141 yards from Tatro.
“That’s the great thing about having a kid like [Mucci],” Bostwick said. “We call it toughness, but it’s the discipline and consistency that we see from him on a day to day basis. I’ve been saying this, and hopefully he just keeps getting better: He’s our Mariano Rivera a lot of times in those tough situations – we put him out there and give him the ball.”
Frontier got the ball three more times down by two scores, but each time, the Hurricanes held the Red Hawks without a first down.
On their last possession, with about three minutes left to play, Isaac Campbell broke up a pass and Tatro sacked the quarterback for an 11-yard loss to help put the game away.
Hoosac Valley next week goes to Easthampton for a Friday night game against the Eagles (4-2, 2-1).
