DALTON, Mass. – The Wahconah football team bounced back after back-to-back losses with a big win over Agawam, 54-18, Friday night.
It was a strong start to the game for the Wahconah (3-2) defense with a three-and-out on the first series of the game holding Agawam to no yards on their first drive.
The offense took the field, and on its first play it fumbled, the ball giving it right back to Agawam, who didn’t waste any time scoring with the short field to give the visitors a 6-0 lead.
It looked like it might be another long night for Wahconah when West Dews took the kickoff all the back for a touchdown after running right up the middle and exploding to the outside for the score.
Dews finished the game with 126 rushing yards and two touchdowns. This seemed to give Wahconah the momentum spark they needed as they finished off the 2-point conversion to give them an early 8-6 lead.
The defense took the field again and just like the opening possession for Agawam they were able to shut them down again. This time, Wahconah’s offense only needed three more plays to find the end zone, once again on the ground from West Dews who broke a 56-yard touchdown to give them a 16-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“It was more of a relief more than anything,” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell said after the initial fumble of the game. “It’s not the way you want to start a football game. We haven’t been playing well the past two games and what I’m really happy with is we could have hung our heads and said here we go again, but when you think about life and what you’re trying to teach these kids is, things are going bad are we going to give up or will we pick ourselves off the mat and say hey we have a challenge. West Dews gave a great answer and it gave us some great confidence.”
Agawam tried to fight back and scored one more time after a long drive that saw them work the ball through the air before punching in their second touchdown of the game. From that point on, it was all Wahconah.
Landon Corcoran started to heat both through the air and on the ground rushing one in from 5 yards out to give Wahconah a 24-12 lead. On the next series he found Garrett Taylor in the back of the end zone for his first throwing touchdown of the night. Landon Corcoran finished the game with two rushing and three throwing touchdowns really getting the offense going all night long.
“We’ve been fine offensively all year, and Landon is really good and accurate at throwing the ball. West is quick in the run game and if we stay balanced offensively we can really give teams trouble,” Gary Campbell said.
Wahconah scored one more time right before the half to take a resounding, 38-12 lead at the break.
Second half action found Wahconah using that same winning formula, striking quickly on a five-play drive with Owen Brennan finding the end zone through the air this time from 12 yards out. Brennan wasn’t finished as he had himself a nice second half getting an interception on the ensuing drive that he once again capped off with a touchdown catch giving him two touchdowns on the night.
Wahconah led 54-12 early in the third quarter and were able to just run the clock down as they would secure their third win of the season looking to build that momentum before playing West Springfield on the road, next Friday.
