Hoosac Valley Stymies Monument Mountain for Third Straight Win
CHESHIRE, Mass. -- The Monument Mountain football team waited a long time to get back on the field.
The Hoosac Valley defense made the Spartans wait at least another week to get into the end zone.
The Hurricanes held Monument Mountain to 9 yards and no first downs on four second-half possessions in an 18-0 win on Saturday afternoon.
"That was just good preparation," Hoosac Valley coach Mike Bostwick said. "Our kids were more focused in the second half. They executed the defensive plan. They just did a good job. They did a much better job of playing together and playing as a team.
"The first half, we weren't playing the way we should have been."
The Hurricanes (3-1) also scored all their points in the second half as they won their third straight and picked up their second straight shutout win.
The first half on Saturday was a story of two defenses that bent but did not break.
The Hurricanes started their first possession at midfield and drove to the Spartans' 4 before Monument Mountain defended a fourth-and-goal pass attempt to get the ball back.
Monument Mountain (0-1) then drove from its 4 to the Hoosac Valley 8.
"We got a couple of good plays moving in the first half," Monument junior quarterback Hunter Degrenier said. "We started adding to our playbook, mix it up a little bit, make them start thinking a little bit.
"They started to figure us out. But were were using our weapons well in the first half."
What ended up being the Spartans' best drive of the day ended on fourth-and-6 at the Hurricanes' 8 when Carson Meczywor and Shaun Kastner combined on a stop at the 4.
The Hurricanes then went from their 4 all the way to the Monument Mountain 15. Hoosac Valley appeared to pick up a first down on fourth-and-4 with a run by Aaron Bush (158 yards), but a holding call on the run pushed the Hurricanes into a fourth-and-9. And Meczywor's fourth-down pass was incomplete with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in the half.
Neither team could do anything with the ball on their next two possessions of the half, which ended on an interception by Monument Mountain's Jay Howard deep in the Spartans' end of the field.
Hoosac's first possession of the second half saw the Hurricanes' offensive frustration end. Bostwick's squad marched 47 yards for a score on an 11-yard run by Bush.
The drive featured four straight carries by eighth-grader Griffin Mucci for 24 yards to set up first-and-10 at the 11.
"These guys really do root for each other," Bostwick said. "99 percent of them are not selfish. And getting Mooch in, he brings a different energy, especially for a young guy like that. He brings a different energy, and he runs hard, a different running style. I think that was really key, honestly, to getting us moving."
Hoosac Valley's next possession started on its 48, and the Canes needed just six plays to get in the end zone on a 24-yard run by Bush early in the fourth quarter.
The day's final score came on a 35-yard pass from Meczywor to Kobe Valois. The play started with the junior QB rolling to the left, but then came all the way back across the field before finding an open Valois down the right sideline.
"This game was good for these guys because, overcoming a little bit of adversity for these guys and watching some of those leadership qualities that I really haven't much this year," Bostwick said. "Carson -- the stuff he did at the line and then, just Carson being Carson, the athletic ability at the end was good to see."