NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – One year to the day after dropping a 44-0 decision at Franklin Tech, the McCann Tech football team Saturday night was in the game in the fourth quarter.
But the Eagles made a goal line stand to start the period and marched 85 yards to get their third touchdown and put away a 20-0 win in the season opener for both teams.
Josiah Little rushed for 54 yards and ran back a punt for a score, and Franklin Tech’s defense held the Hornets without a first down in the first half in a game rescheduled from Friday night due to thunderstorms.
McCann Tech, which did not hold an opponent to fewer than 27 points last season, kept the Eagles to one offensive touchdown until the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
The Hornets just could not find a way to overcome an injury that helped prevent their own offense from getting on track.
“We had an early injury, which kind of takes away some of our run game,” McCann Tech coach John LeClair said. “You put backups in, and they go out and do the work. But kind of what our scheme was with the one player who went down early on.
“We held them back. They had a return, but it was kind of a stalemate right up until half-time.”
McCann Tech’s defense stopped Franklin Tech in the red zone on the game’s first possession, getting the ball back on a fourth-and-3 at the 17.
But after a three-and-out, the Hornets were forced to punt, and Little returned the kick half the length of the field to give his team a 6-0 lead with 4 minutes, 9 seconds left in the quarter.
From there, it was a series of fruitless possessions until a muffed punt for McCann Tech gave the Eagles the ball at the plus-15 late in the second quarter.
Franklin Tech quarterback Gabriel Tomasi hit Ethan Smarr for a 20-yard touchdown pass on second down, and Tomasi threw another completion for the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 2:44 left in the half.
After two costly plays on special teams for the Hornets, they made two big special teams plays to end the half.
First, Walter Mazza ran back the ensuing kickoff 41 yards to get his team good field position. Then, after another three-and-out, Parker Hart punted the ball 35 yards into the corner to give the Eagles a possession at their 7 with 1:03 on the clock, all but ensuring it would stay a two-score game at half-time.
The Hornets got their first first down on a 12-yard run by Hart on the first play of the second half. Later in the third quarter, McCann started a march from its 48 all the way to the Franklin Tech 7.
The big plays included a 10-yard pass on fourth-and-5 from Connor Walden to Joe Roy and a 14-yard run by Walden. But the Hornets’ try on fourth-and-6 from the 7 ended in a fumble in the backfield, and the Eagles took over on their 15.
It was then, against a tired and deflated McCann Tech squad, that the Eagles finally got some traction in their running game, moving the ball 85 yards in eight plays on the ground, overcoming a 10-yard holding call along the way.
Little had a 35-yard run in that final drive to account for more than half his production.
“[Little] is a junior, and he already has 2,000 yards plus for rushing,” LeClair said. “So to hold him to [54 yards] in a game is commendable, given what he usually can put up.”
McCann Tech will look to even its record next Friday at Mahar.
