Turners Falls Scores TD in Closing Seconds to Trip Mount Greylock
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Turners Falls High School football team Friday scored the first two times it touched the ball and the last two times it touched the ball to hand Mount Greylock a 26-24 loss in the Western Massachusetts Division 4A Championship Game at Weston Field.
Tionne Brown threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Owen Ortiz with five seconds left to complete Turners’ comeback from a 24-14 fourth-quarter deficit.
The win sends Turners Falls (10-0) on to next weekend’s state semi-final at Westfield State University and ends Mount Greylock’s bid for a perfect season at 9-1.
“We played good football all year,” Mounties coach Andrew Agostini said. “It was a lot of fun. I thought we played entertaining football. I thought we played at a high level. I thought we played very well tonight, but when you play another good team, this could happen. They made some plays, and they were able to get it done.
“It hurts right now, and it’s probably going to hurt for a while. But certainly the kids have nothing to be ashamed of. They played great all year, and it was a pleasure to coach them.”
Devin Pelletier (92 yards) scored his second touchdown of the game with 3 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give the Mounties a 10-point lead.
But Turners Falls went 57 yards in 1:45 to draw within a touchdown.
Brown, who had just one completion for 15 yards coming into the fourth quarter, completed three passes for 44 yards in that drive, which ended in a 10-yard run by Jack Darling (69 yards).
After Eli Ostheimer recovered the onsides kick at Mount Greylock’s 45 with 2:06 left to play, the Turners defense stiffened. Three Pelletier runs yielded 9 yards, but Mount Greylock failed to move the pile on fourth down and surrendered the ball back to Turners, down 24-20 with 1:39 left to play.
Agostini said he did not give a second thought to notion of punting the ball in that situation.
“No,” he said. “It was fourth and inches. We’ve got to ride with our offense. We’ve been riding it all year. They made a great play to stop it, and obviously that was a big play in the game.”
Brown ran for 13 yards to get the ball on the plus side of the 50 on Tuners’ first play. Then, Mount Greylock’s pass defense forced three straight incompletions before Brown hit for a 15-yard gain to get the ball to the 26.
Two plays later, a 12-yard run by Brown set up first-and-10 at the 13. He threw for 12 yards to get the ball to 1, and after Mount Greylock tackled Quinn Doyle (81 yards, two TDs) for a 1-yard loss with 9 seconds left, Brown found Ortiz at the back of the end zone to put Turners on top.
Turners Falls dominated the first quarter with two sustained drives fueled by Darling and Doyle.
Its first possession went for 59 yards in 13 plays. The second drive went for 53 yards and ended on the second play of the second quarter with a 1-yard Doyle run on fourth-and-goal.
Mount Greylock answered with a 66-yard drive that featured a big fourth-and-4 play at midfield. Michael Wellspeak (103 yards passing) converted with a 25-yard completion to Sean McCormack that got the Mounties to the 15. Five plays later, Pelletier scored to cut Turners’ lead to 14-6.
The Mounties then caught a break when Turners fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Wellspeak made the most of it with a 34-yard strike down the left side to McCormack to make it 14-12. For the second of four times on the night, Mount Greylock’s try for two points came up short,
Mount Greylock’s special teams set up its next touchdown as well. A blocked punt gave the Mounties the ball at the plus-30 late in the second quarter. Wellspeak ran for 16 yards on the first play of the drive and finished it with a 14-yard TD to Brandon Condon to put Mount Greylock on top, 18-14, at half-time.
Two Mounties’ drives stalled in Turners’ territory in the third quarter. In the fourth, Pelletier ran for 55 yards on nine carries in a 62-yard drive to give Mount Greylock the 24-14 lead with 3:51 left.
The key to the Mounties getting the lead: their defense, which held Turners Falls scoreless on five straight possessions after giving up TDs on Turners’ first two drives.
“I think a lot of times, it’s just getting a feel for the opponent, particularly if you haven’t played them,” Agostini said of Mount Greylock’s struggles against the run in the first quarter. “I think after the first two drives, we really settled down and started playing good defense.
“But they obviously made some drives when they needed to. They started throwing the ball around, and we had some trouble covering it. These things happen.”