'Resilient' Hornets Rewarded with Win
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The McCann Tech football team secured its first win of the season with a 20-10 win over Pathfinder Friday night, at home.
It’s been awhile since McCann has been able to celebrate a win, but today was finally that day. After a tough 42-0 loss to this very team last year, McCann was ready to go from the opening kickoff.
After forcing a three and out on the first series, McCann Tech looked to get things going on the offensive end. The Hornets started their first series with a promising opening drive getting deep in the red zone, but were unfortunately not able to convert on the field goal attempt.
Pathfinder looked to take control of the game on their next series, driving down the field and finishing it off through the air with a 9-yard score. With the positive first drive of the game for the Hornets they continued to pound the ball before getting back-to-back completions, one resulting in an 11-yard touchdown from Aiden Ford. McCann was able to convert the two-point conversion and take the 8-7 lead.
“We’ve had this game on the calendar for a year, we knew this was our game and these kids were resilient and phenomenal all game long,” McCann Tech coach John LeClair said. “These kids have been putting in the work, they’ve been getting up at 5:30 in the morning, doing lifts before school and then putting in a full day of school and then practicing for two hours after so the credit goes all to them, they came out with a purpose tonight.”
After falling behind, Pathfinder drove down the field, but once again the McCann Tech’s defense was up to the task, holding the visitors to just a field goal before the half.
On the first series of the second half, the Hornets were able to force a fumble when Walter Mazza came straight up the middle diving on the loose handoff giving McCann great field position right out of the half. Six plays later Tyler Little was able to finish off the drive with a 5-yard score, giving his team the 14-10 lead.
The game continued to be a defensive battle as both teams gave little room for either offenses to get a rhythm. McCann Tech got three straight tackles for loss, forcing a punt just before the end of the third quarter.
With the win within striking distance McCann went on an impressive 11-play drive late in the fourth quarter that was capped off by Walter Mazza, a man on a mission to put this game out of reach with just over a minute left to go. Mazza led the ground game with 145 yards and the game sealing touchdown.
“We were making sure that we were moving down the field and getting those first downs to run that clock down because you don’t want to leave any time left for them to come back and score,” LeClair said. “Everything was working, we had very few errors that we could see, but these guys did great all game.”
McCann Tech will look to build on their first win of the season when they take on inner city rival Drury next week.