Hoosac Valley Holds Tigers, Sets Up Battle of Unbeatens with Lee
CHESHIRE, Mass. – At the start of the second quarter in a scoreless game on Saturday, the Hoosac Valley football offense was gaining some traction.
Overcoming a pair of holding calls in a nine-play drive, the Hurricanes took the ball from their 20 to the South Hadley 9. Then, on third and 1 inside the 10, Hoosac Valley fumbled the ball away for the game’s first turnover.
On the very next play, the Hurricanes’ defense forced a fumble and recovered at the 21
Four plays later, Qwanell Bradley was in the end zone with the game’s first touchdown with 5 minutes 25 seconds until half-time.
Hoosac Valley scored 19 more points before the half ended in an eventual 33-6 win to improve to 4-0 this fall.
Bradley ran for 67 yards, Kamarion Kastner broke off a 73-yard TD run, and Ben Payton completed two passes for 37 yards and a touchdown.
But it was the defense, which has allowed 12 points in its last three games, that made the difference, setting up all four second quarter touchdowns with turnovers.
“We just fly around, honestly,” Bradley said. “Everybody rallies. You see the ball on the ground, you know we’re going to come up with it. You see the ball, we punch the ball. Guys picking guys up, suplexing.
“The energy is insane on defense. I don’t know if anybody can match that.”
After Bradley and kicker Adan Wicks gave Hoosac Valley a 7-0 lead, the defense needed just three plays to produce another South Hadley turnover. Jacob Borawski’s tackle for a loss produced a fumble recovered by Bradley at the Tigers’ 6.
Payton ran it in from there to push the lead to 14-0 with a second TD in less than a minute.
On South Hadley’s next possession, Noah Rehill’s tackle behind the line of scrimmage jarred the ball loose, and Logan O’Connell recovered at the Tigers’ 20.
“Our defense all day was right where we wanted them to be,” Hoosac Valley coach Marshall Maxwell said. “This is the biggest turnaround that I’ve seen from the first three games of the season. Defensively, we were just locked in all day.
“We executed the defense all week in practice. And, when it came to game time, our guys really made some good adjustments in game and continued to execute the defense well with a few change-ups.”
A fourth straight turnover, this time on downs, led to Hoosac Valley’s fourth touchdown of the second quarter.
After a three-and-out from its 30, South Hadley lined up to punt with less than 30 seconds left until half-time. A muffed snap ended up with Hoosac Valley taking possession at the plus-19 with 20 seconds left.
At that point, Maxwell called his first pass play of the game, a throw to Bradley on the right side, and he ran it in to make it 26-0 with 13.6 seconds left.
“We knew that we had one particular play all week that we liked against them, and we waited until we had that critical moment with the turnover right before half,” Maxwell said. “Coach Jeremy Levesque, right with perfect timing, called that one play we were looking for. We knew Qwanell Bradley was going to be running down the sideline open, and Ben Payton delivered the ball. And ‘Q’ finished it.”
That pretty much finished off South Hadley, though the Tigers’ defense did make a stand on Hoosac Valley’s first possession of the second half, forcing a punt at midfield.
The Tigers’ offense mounted its best drive of the game, going from its 20 to the Hoosac Valley 12, but an incompletion on fourth down gave Hoosac Valley the ball on its 12.
Four runs for 15 yards got it to the 27 before Kastner dashed around the right end and raced up the sideline, 73 yards for the score with 9.7 seconds left in the third. The last of Wicks’ kicks gave the Hurricanes a 33-0 lead and ensured the fourth quarter would be played under running time.
South Hadley’s Griffin Soderbaum threw an 8-yard touchdown pass with about four minutes left. And despite the Tigers recovering an onside kick, there were just two more plays from scrimmage the rest of the way – one a 10-yard sack by Borawski.
On paper, the Tigers figured to be one of Hoosac Valley’s stiffest challenges to date. The Suburban North rival came in with a record of 2-1 and the No. 14 ranking in Division 7 statewide.
Now, all eyes turn to next Saturday, when Division 8’s second-ranked team, Hoosac Valley, hosts the Division’s No. 1 team, Lee (4-0) for supremacy in the Suburban North and more.
Last year in Lee, the Wildcats beat Hoosac Valley, 47-15, on its way to an undefeated regular season, league title and state quarter-final berth.
“There have been thoughts about Lee since … last year,” Bradley said. “There’s always thoughts about Lee. We’re still in the same league. We knew we’d have to see them again. We want to see them again. We’ve got something to prove, and we intend on doing that.”