South Hadley Stops Taconic

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Jhaymhar Henry ran for 86 yards, and Noah Hambley ran for 83 Friday night to lead the South Hadley football team to a 28-14 win over Taconic at Berkshire Community College,

 

The Tigers (3-2) survived two big passing plays from the Thunder and took control of the game with their ground attack in the second half, when the visitors held Taconic to just one first down.

 

Griffin Soderbaum threw for two scores for South Hadley, but the most exciting passing plays of the night came from Taconic.

 

Trailing 13-0 early in the second quarter, Taconic took advantage of good field position from a botched onside kick attempt that gave the Thunder possession at the plus-47.

 

Eight plays later, coach Just Bailey’s team was in the end zone following a 26-yard completion from Lilyana Ferris to Evan Roccabruna.

 

Ferris found Roccabruna deep down the right side, and he leapt up between two Tiger defenders to high point the ball before staggering into the end zone to make it 13-6.

 

Two possessions later, Taconic was at its own 48 with time running out in the half.

 

Ferris again went to Roccabruna, who again out jumped two South Hadley defenders for a catch at about the Tiger 38-yard line. This time, Roccabruna came down on his feet, found his balance and raced the rest of the way for a 52-yard scoring play.

 

Eddie Ferris ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 20-14.

 

“Like I said at the beginning of the year, [Roccabruna] is coming into his junior year, this is supposed to be a breakout year,” Bailey said. “He’s one of our good playmakers, and I’m trying to give him the ball. So that’s what we did.

 

“We worked on that this week, just trying to switch it up, because everybody knows we’re run heavy, so I tried to switch it up a little bit.”

 

South Hadley got the ball after the ensuing kickoff at its own 38 with 10.2 seconds on the clock and tried to make some progress, but Taconic’s defense came up with a sack to end the half and carry the momentum from Roccabruna’s second TD into half-time.

 

“That’s what it’s about,” Bailey said. ‘You try to get momentum. Obviously, you try to get ahead, but you try to get momentum into half-time. You try to build on that, make adjustments, and that’s what we were hoping to do. But we just couldn’t finish the job.”

 

Taconic started the third quarter strong, forcing South Hadley into a fourth-and-17 at midfield and getting the ball on a Tiger punt.

 

But three plays into the Thunder’s first possession of the half, a Ferris pass deflected off the intended receiver to a South Hadley defender. The Tigers’ offense took over at Taconic’s 28 and ran the ball eight straight times, scoring on fourth-and-goal from the 1 to go up by two touchdowns.

 

“You’ve got to play mistake free football,” Bailey said. “But like I say all the time, I can’t be prouder of my guys. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

 

Taconic (1-4) is home again at BCC next Friday to face Hoosac Valley.

 

Photos from this game here.