NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- There’s a new train in the Tunnel City, and it goes by the name Jamal Beda.
Beda ran for 116 yards and both touchdowns on Saturday as the Drury Blue Devils beat McCann Tech, 12-6, in the Hornets Nest as the city schools renewed a long dormant rivalry as part of the first-year Intercounty West league.
The 135-pound back said he takes his cues from 220-pound Miami Dolphin Jay Ajayi.
“I just keep pumping my feet,” Beda said. “I’m just thinking I’m a train, and I keep going, that’s all. I watch a lot of highlight films on YouTube of a running back called ‘J Train.’ I just imitate him, and try to pick up as many of his moves as I can.”
Many of Beda’s best moves on Saturday involved yards after contact, as he refused to go down and lifted the Blue Devils (2-4, 1-1) up out of the league’s basement. He scored on runs of 29 and 11 yards. One of his most punishing runs came when he broke several tackles and dragged the pile the last couple yards of a 15-yard gain that helped set up Drury’s first score.
“He is a special player,” Drury coach Seth Shepard said of Beda. “I ride that kid so hard, and probably looks at me like, ‘Coach, what else can I do?’ And I keep challenging him and keep challenging him, and he always responds.”
Scoring was a challenge for both teams on Saturday.
The game’s tone was set for McCann Tech (1-5, 0-3) on the first play from scrimmage, when the Hornets fumbled the ball and Drury’s Anthony Corbosiero recovered at the plus-28.
But the Hornets’ defense responded to that challenge, stopping Drury four plays later to get the ball back when a fourth-and-7 pass fell incomplete.
The teams then fought a war of attrition that saw Drury finally win a battle with a 11-play, 84-yard drive that Beda capped with a 29-yard run to the left side.
McCann’s offense managed just two first-half first downs and went to the break down, 6-0.
“The defense played really well,” Shepard said. “I challenged them again in coverage. Their coverage is coming along really well this season. I feel like the defense is right there -- just a couple of missed tackles and a couple of breakdowns.
“Today, we didn’t have any breakdowns, but we did have some missed tackles that made some big plays. And our defense got put in some tough spots because of mistakes on the kicking game and some serious mistakes with holding onto the ball.”
McCann’s one scoring drive went 62 yards and consumed 6 minutes, 8 seconds that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Justin Meczywor capped the drive when he scored from the 6 to tie the game, 6-6.
Meczywor finished with 42 yards rushing and 57 yards passing in a game when -- emblematic of McCann’s injury-plagued season -- he twice had to be helped off the field after being seen by the trainer.
“I just have to talk about the heart my team played with,” McCann coach Bob LeClair said. “[Meczywor] twice going out. His hand is banged up, swollen in places. He took a good hit to the side of the knee. You can see this nice nickel-sized red mark where he got hit. No structural damage, nothing like that. It’s not like the kid’s ACL is torn and we threw him back in.
“He’s sore. But he went back out. ‘Buckle that chin strap and put the mouthpiece in, I’m going back out to finish playing.’ And for him and for the other kids, the heart they showed to play like they did with, again, more kids going down -- I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Already thin throughout its starting 11, McCann saw two more players -- junior Keandre Gardner and senior Dakota Bolte -- leave Saturday’s game and not return.
After Meczywor scored the equalizer early in the fourth quarter, the teams traded punts before Drury was able to put together a 63-yard drive that ended on Beda’s second TD with 5:13 on the clock.
McCann touched the ball two more times, but both times the Blue Devils closed the door. First, sophomore Nate Hillard made a diving interception at the Drury 33.
Then, after McCann was able to force a Drury punt with a minute left, a last-ditch pass from the Hornets’ 31 was knocked down near midfield on the final play of the game.
For a Drury team that has struggled to find wins the last couple of years, Saturday’s triumph in front of a large crowd may have meant more than just putting a notch in the win column.
“The kids got up for it, which is good,” Shepard said of the opportunity to take on McCann. “It looks like it’s going to be a new tradition we can start. I challenged the kids to come out and play hard. This program has had a lot of success the last couple of years, and [Drury players] have had to hear about how successful McCann’s been.
“They’ve done it the right way. They have a lot of good players. And I challenged our kids to come out and show people how Drury football plays, and show them Berkshire County football. Make a name for yourself and start something new. Start a new tradition that you can be proud of.”
Drury hosts Mohawk Trail next Saturday while McCann hosts Palmer.
