Shippee, Poirier Power Wahconah Past Pittsfield
DALTON, Mass.. — The Wahconah football team got a nice bounce back win against Pittsfield, 46-8, at home, Friday night.
It was a great response for Wahconah (2-1) coming off a tough loss last weekend to Wilmington. They forced Pittsfield into a quick 3-and-out, setting itself up for a nice long drive on the ground on its first possession.
Wahconah went 13 plays for 70 yards, all on the ground before Payton Shippee punched it in from 4 yards out to give Wahconah an 8-0 lead. Shippee had a great game on the ground getting over 120 yards and one touchdown. Fellow running back Noah Poirier also had a strong game rushing with 95 yards and two touchdowns.
Pittsfield (1-2) answered right back after the first Wahconah score with a kickoff return by Da’Sean Brown on the ensuing drive. From that point on, it was all Wahconah on both sides of the ball. Wahconah went right back to the run game and capped off a seven-play drive with a touchdown from Owen Brennan to make it 16-8.
Wahconah’s defense stood tall once again and give the ball right back to the offense. Wahconah broke a big play for a touchdown only to be called back for a penalty. That didn’t stop them too long as they would pound the ball again leading to one of those two touchdowns from Noah Poirier.
The big series of the game came right before the half when Wahconah was able to take a nice two-minute drill all the way down the field with no timeouts and score just before the half to make it 32-8.
“Huge score right before that half, because otherwise it’s 24-8 which is only a two-score game. So that made it 32, which was a huge psychological boost plus we got the ball back.” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell Jr. said. “The play we hit Johnny Howard on a fourth down was probably the biggest play of the game for us.”
In the second half with the big lead, Wahconah was able to work on some other stuff going through the air early and often.
“We had the luxury of being ahead so we wanted to work on some stuff and hit some passes because we are going to need that down the line and we can because we have great receivers.” Campbell said.
Wahconah will look to build on the performance against Amherst on the road next week.
As for Pittsfield, they will look to get back on track at home against South Hadley.