Game of the Week: Health Questions Heading into Week 5

Scouting reports have been replaced by medical reports for two of the county's top high school football players.

 

And this weekend fans will be curious to see who suits up for Hoosac Valley and Wahconah.

 

Defending Western Massachusetts Division 4 champion Wahconah (2-2, 1-1 Berkshire County) has gotten off to an uneven start, and it is likely part of that is due to the absence of preseason all-state defensive lineman Cole Morrison.

 

In August, coach Gary Campbell projected Morrison's return from an ACL injury as coming in "mid October." If that schedule holds, it means a return either Friday night against Drury or next week against Hoosac Valley.

 

The Hurricanes (4-0, 3-0) lost three-year quarterback Matt Koperniak to an apparent ankle injury midway through last week's win at Mount Greylock. Backup Nick Waterman jumped into the fray and secured the victory, but it's likely that Koperniak's experience will be missed at some point if he does not get back on the field.

 

On Thursday, Hoosac coach Dayne Poirot declined to talk about Koperniak's status for Saturday's game against Monument Mountain.

 

He is willing to talk about the challenge posed by the Spartans (1-2).

 

"They've shown they can score," Poirot said. "They gave Greylock a tough game. They're a good team. They've got some good players. They have [Mike] Buffoni and [Brandon] Perry back -- kids who were great players for them last year.

 

"They play tough and they hit hard."

 

The Spartans have not had much success finding the end zone after their Week 1 win at Mount Greylock. But in that game, they scored 22 points behind a punishing ground attack, and defensively, Monument has shown a vulnerability to the passing game, something Hoosac does not generally feature. Among other things, this game could be one of the quickest of the year in terms of real time, so get there early for that 1 p.m. start.

 

The weekend opens on Friday night with a pair of intraleague match-ups and includes an intriguing interleague clash on Saturday.

 

Wahconah looks to build on the momentum from last week's win over Monument Mountain when it hosts Drury (0-4) on Friday at 7 p.m. Down the road in Pittsfield, the Generals (3-1) host Lee (2-2).

 

Saturday's slate promises three games. Taconic (3-1) looks to continue a three-game winning straeak when it goes out of conference to host Ludlow (2-2). Hoosac Valley entertains Monument. And a game with post-season implications bragging rights implications sends Mount Greylock (1-3) to North Adams to face McCann Tech (4-0).

 

The Hornets were undefeated against Western Mass competition last year on their way to the state semi-finals, but they also gathered their share of detractors who don't think McCann's Tri-County League schedule matches up with the Berkshire County League.

 

Division 6 McCann will be looking to prove a point and gain valuable seeding points when it takes on the D5 Mounties.