Hoosac Football Shows Depth in Road Win

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Hoosac Valley football team looked to their third string quarterback, Nick Waterman, Friday evening in their 32-20 victory over Mount Greylock, after senior quarterback Matt Koperniak went down with an ankle injury before half-time.

 

"Nick jumped in and stepped up and played the position well and just handled it and managed the game for us," Hoosac coach Dayne Poirot said. "I thought he did a good job and Brendan [Ellsworth] took on a big load of the carries and it's a team effort; there's a lot of guys here looking to come out with a win.

 

"They're [Greylock] an alright team, they're pretty good, and they're more than I think people give them credit for, they're a hard working good group of kids."

 

The Mounties (1-3) received the ball at the start of the game after Hoosac won the toss and deferred.

 

They carried the ball into the end zone in the first drive; it came from a 4-yard run from quarterback Brodie Altiere with 8 minutes, 3 seconds on the clock.

 

Four minutes later, Hoosac quarterback Matt Koperniak took it into the end zone on a quarterback keeper and threw to Donald Monsees for the two-point conversion to take the lead 8-6.

 

The Mounties certainly contended with the Hurricanes Friday evening as they kept coming back at them; they took the lead once more to go to half-time up, 12-8.

 

That score came from a handoff to Pat Storie who then threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Sean McCormack.

 

"I think that the kids played really tough, we whipped out all the stops tonight, we had some trick plays and those certainly helped," Greylock coach Andrew Augostini said. "We have so many young players that are playing unbelievable and the older guys are being great leaders; this is the best team in the league and we played with them, we hung with them, we hit with them; we keep getting better and I can't ask for anything more as a coach."

 

In the second quarter Ellsworth put the Hurricanes lead at 16-12 with a 10-yard run into the end zone and a two-point conversion that was good.

 

They scored once more before half with 12 seconds to go; David Critelli found the end zone this time.

 

"I think what we need to take away from this is that the guys that are the next man in need to be ready," Poirot said. "They need to be ready to jump in and step in; they need to be at the same speed that the guys in front of them are at."

 

Greylock scored once more in the second half; it came from Devin Pelletier to cut the Hurricanes' lead to four after scoring the two point conversion. But from there Hoosac was able to hold them and score one more of their own.

 

Max Shaffer ran for 46 yards with 2:36 left to provide the final margin.