Pittsfield Holds on to Beat Monument

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Senior quarterback Chad Shade threw two touchdowns and scored another on a 45-yard interception to lead his Pittsfield Generals to a 18-14 victory over the visiting Monument Mountain Spartans on Friday night at Wahconah Park. 

 

It was the second straight opening week win over Monument for Pittsfield, as they defeated the Spartans  last year, 30-22, in a back and forth affair.

 

This season's win was very similar as the two teams battled down to the final minutes of the game,

 

"They match up very well with us. Coach Chris D'Aniello is doing a great job with those guys and they are going to be a force to be reckoned with. I just told my guys every Berkshire County game is going to be a 44-minute fight," Pittsfield coach Brian Jezewski said. 

 

Up 12-6 with just more than seven minutes to play, Pittsfield's Shade intercepted an overthrown pass and sprinted 45 yards to the endzone to push his team's lead to 18-6. 

 

But the Spartans were not going to lay down as they answered back on their next possesion and scored a touchdown with three minutes remaining. Monument junior wideout Brandon Perry made a beautiful shoestring catch on a low throw from quarterback Austin Pectal to put six on the board and junior running back Mike Buffoni plunged in for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to four.

 

On the ensuing kickoff, the Spartans attempted an onside kick and sophomore Cayvon Truden was able to recover it. With the ball on the PHS 47, it took Monument just two plays to get down to the PHS 11 yard line as Buffoni ripped off runs of 9, 22, and 5 yards. 

 

But then just as it looked like the Spartans may steal a late game win, disaster struck. On their next play they fumbled the ball and Pittsfield recovered on their own 3-yard line. Shade was able to convert a first down on a quarterback sneak, and the Generals kneeled out the clock to seal their first win the of the year.

 

Despite the win, Jezewski said that he didn't think his team played a complete game. 

 

"Monument did what a lot of other teams are going to try to do and that is take away running back Devon Tucker," he said. "I thought early on they did a good job of doing it."

 

Tucker finished with just 46 yards on 13 carries, but it was Shade who picked up the slack as he finished as the team's leading rusher with 57 yards on 10 carries to go along with four completions for 80 yards in the passing game and two touchdowns. He could have had an even bigger game as he and junior wideout Mason Papiro had three different open chances for touchdowns but they just missed on connecting.

 

Shade's interception in the fourth quarter for what turned out to be the decisive touchdown was perhaps his biggest play of the night, but his 60-yard completion to senior wideout Evan Bossio with just 30 seconds before half-time and the score tied 6-6 was arguably just as important.

 

"We went out in the gun and went spread," Shade said. "Evan was on the outside and I saw it was man coverage. I took my three step drop and looked down field. He beat him and I just lead him with the pass and he made a great catch and took it down the field."

 

Shade then hit Papiro for a 5-yard touchdown to take the lead 12-6 heading into the break.

 

"Chad's been a big part of the team for four years. A freshman starter for us and he works really really hard. You can't take away what a four year starter brings to a team. Just his savvy and leadership ability is something I am really impressed with," Jezewski said. 

 

Before falling behind by two scores, Monument got the scoring started with a strong first possesion of the game. It marched down the field in nine plays that included a pretty pass from Pectal to Perry for 47 yards on their fourth play of the game. Buffoni plunged in from 6 yards out to make it 6-0.

 

Monument got the ball back immediately when it kicked off and it hit a Pittsfield blocker, giving the Spartans a chance to recover it. Monument head coach Chris D'Aniello said it was not a planned onside kick but rather a miss kick that worked out in their favor.

 

The Spartans next possesion was not as crisp as the first though, and they fumbled on their second play. Pittsfield took over and manufactured their own big drive of 13 plays that ended with Shade hitting junior Giovanni Figueroa for a five yard score to knot things up at 6-6.

 

Though they ended on the wrong side of the scoreboard there were many positives for the Spartans, especially running back Buffoni. He finished as the game's leading rusher with 14 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown including three rushes of 15 plus yards.

 

His fellow ball carriers senior Mark Leon-Duque and senior Terrance Powell also displayed their ability to run the rock as they combined for 63 yards.

 

"We got a triple threat in our backfield," D'Aniello said. "They all stepped up and you got to prepare for three guys coming at you."

 

"It's our first game and you're going to make some bad plays," said Monument's Buffoni. "We've got seven games left so nothing to worry about. We fought back when we were down and kept our heads up. We don't want to be that old Monument team that when stuff goes bad, we all go down and fold up."

 

"I loved it. I hope all of our games are fought like that this year," D'Aniello added. "It was awesome. That's great football. I don't know if our identity in the past years has been a team that's going to bounce back and come back and fight like that. We had a big contest tonight and we definitely stepped up. I'm proud of them."

 

Photos from this game to come.