Smith Leads Wahconah Football Past Lee
DALTON, Mass. -- After a first half that its coach described as “ugly,” the Wahconah football team Friday night righted the ship, and Jonah Smith had a whale of a game.
The senior ran for 266 yards and three touchdowns as Wahconah beat Lee, 34-0, to improve to 2-0 this fall.
“Jonah needs a lot of touches,” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell Jr. said. “He’s a good back, and the more touches he gets, the better it is for our team.
“Jonah’s got good quicks, he’s got good power. He’s got a good blend of speed and power. But in the second half, I thought we did a much crisper job of blocking, staying with our blocks. And also our guards pulling were much better.
“Just crisper all the way around.”
Initially, it looked like Wahconah would be able to ride the momentum of last week’s win over PIttsfield to a big offensive night.
The first time the hosts touched the ball, they went 65 yards in six plays, the last 20 on a Smith run to make it 6-0 with 7 minutes, 14 seconds left in the first quarter.
But Lee (1-1) kept Wahconah off the board the rest of the half.
“The first half was ugly football,” Campbell said. “We just didn’t look right. We didn’t look good. I was glad at half-time we were able to make some different adjustments -- offensively. We didn’t have to do it defensively. The defense played great all game.
“Our offense was just out of sync in the first half. Sacks, penalties, all those things … it was just ugly. We didn’t throw the ball well, we didn’t block well.”
On its third drive of the game, Wahconah stalled on a try to convert fourth-and-10 at the Lee 20.
Its fourth possession was a 15-play march that went from the Wahconah 38 to the plus-17. But Lee slammed the door, taking advantage of a miscue on the snap on second and 10 and successfully defending a pair of passes to get the ball back in the shadow of its end zone with 12 seconds left in the half.
It was an eerie echo of the Wildcats’ opener, when they were the victims of a goalline stand by Monument Mountain with the Spartans trailing by one score.
It was even more eerie when the team that failed to score just before half-time found the end zone multiple times in the second half.
After a 21-yard Brad Noyes return of the second half kickoff got the ball to midfield, Wahconah went 54 yards, the last 33 on a pass from Ryan Scott to Luke Dicicco. The run for two points failed, and Wahconah settled for a 12-0 lead two minutes into the half.
The next time it touched the ball, Smith went 70 yards on the first play. This time, the two-pointer succeeded, and it was 20-0 midway through the third quarter.
Wahconah put the game out of reach with a 61-yard drive that spanned the third and fourth quarters and ended in a 19-yard run by Smith.
Doug Collins tacked on a 68-yard score in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
Cam Freeman ran for 39 yards to lead Lee, which hosts McCann Tech on Friday.
Wahconah goes to Taconic on Friday.