PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Four different Wahconah ballcarriers ran the ball, and two other players caught passes on the team’s opening possession Friday night, setting the tone offensively in a 36-12 win over Pittsfield.
Wahconah came at the Generals in a variety of different ways, running multiple players out of “wildcat” formations and getting 10-of-10 passing for 120 yards and a score from Gio Venable in the first half as it improved its record to 2-2 overall and opened the Suburban South schedule with a win.
“We’re evolving, which is good,” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell Jr. said. “Getting Jerry Beaubrun back today was big. He’s a dynamic runner. He’s one of our best players. So getting him back on the field today and ready to go is exciting. They’re excited about it, too.
“All those kids are juniors, our running backs, our receivers. Lorenzo [Lewis] is a senior, but everyone else is a junior, sophomore, freshman. So, skills-wise, we’re excited about what we can do. And that’s what’s evolving. You see all these different sets? I want to get all my athletes the ball, somehow, some way, in space. And that’s what we need to keep doing.”
After dropping its first two games, Wahconah has 68 points in its last two games.
But it was Pittsfield that got on the board first on Friday on Gene Dellea Field, taking the opening kickoff and going 65 yards in six plays.
The biggest chunk was a 44-yard completion deep to the left side from Ben Tobler-Campoli to Xavier Southard to give the Generals a 6-0 lead.
But Wahconah scored the next 36 points, starting with that opening drive, which went 52 yards and ended in Anthony Talora’s 5-yard run.
The next time Wahconah got the ball, Venable completed three straight passes for 61 yards, the last 28 on a throw to Lewis. Venable’s 2-point conversion run made it 14-0 early in the second quarter.
Wahconah scored one more time before half-time, taking a Venable interception and return to the minus-42 and marching the rest of the way in nine plays.
Venable, who completed four more passes on that drive, finished it with a 10-yard run.
“I thought [Wahconah] did a really good job on the perimeter,” Pittsfield coach Brian Jezewski said. “We were in the right spots, for the most part. We didn’t tackle very well. It felt like sometimes we were playing in quicksand … or cement.
“I take my hat off to Wahconah. They were prepared. They did a good job. They’re fast. We’re lacking team speed right now, and they took advantage of it.”
Wahconah took the opening kickoff at midfield and went 52 yards for its fourth score in five possessions. Talora scored again, this time from the 2, to make it 26-6, and Venable ran in the 2-pointer to stretch the margin to 22 points.
Wahconah’s next possession stalled due to three penalties, including one of a couple of unsportsmanlike conduct calls that Campbell’s team took in the game.
“That’s garbage. That hill will get a lot of use,” Campbell said, referring to the climb that sits next to Wahconah’s varsity field in Dalton. “If you’ve already seen the grooves in the hill. There will be more on Monday.”
Pittsfield got a little lift when Wahconah surrendered the ball deep in its own end on a failed fourth-down conversion. The Generals’ Southard ran the ball five times to the 5-yard line, but Wahconah’s Venable broke up a fourth-down pass in the end zone to give his team the ball at its 5 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Two plays later, Wahconah ninth-grader Anthony English busted a 93-yard run on a sweep to the right for the game’s final TD. Venable ran in another conversion to give his team a 36-6 lead and send the game to running time.
Pittsfield (1-3) got a couple of big runs from Seth Aitken in its final offensive possession. He ran the ball for 29 yards to get to the Wahconah 26 and scored from the 18 for the final points of the game.
The Generals will look for their first league win next Friday when they go to Agawam. Wahconah hosts Chicopee Comp on Friday.
