Wahconah Football Gets Revenge Against Pittsfield
DALTON, Mass. — In a game that looked like it was going to be a shootout early on, Wahconah was able to hold off Pittsfield in a tight battle, 36-26, Friday night.
The first quarter alone had a combined 400 yards and six total touchdowns. It didn’t stay that way as both teams struggled in the second quarter to put any points on the board.
Pittsfield came out blazing with a quick strike for 71 yards to get the game started, but Wahconah (1-0) answered right back with a drive of their own. The two continued this pattern for the first quarter with Wahconah capping off a 22-20 lead thanks to the two returns.
“It was huge to answer, Pittsfield went down and scored right away and we answered, then they scored again and we answered again,” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell Jr. said. “Psychologically, not only on the scoreboard, but psychologically, to come back so quickly and to get rid of that bad feeling of them scoring really helped us.”
It wasn’t the best statistical day at the office for Wahconah in the first half but it was able to weather the storm and grind out the points to take the halftime lead.
Quarterback Ryan Scott started to get things going in the second half, starting with an impressive drive that led to a 20-yard touchdown pass to Ben Noyes giving them a 28-20 lead. Scott finished with two touchdowns and 118 yards in the air. The real momentum shift of the game came on the next series, when Wahconah was able to force a fumble with Pittsfield driving and later turned it into a touchdown to take a two-score lead thanks to the ground game of Jonah Smith, racking up 72 rushing yards and that touchdown that sealed the game.
“I thought the forced fumble was a huge play because we scored right after that to make it a two-score game,” Campbell said. "It was a huge momentum swing and I thought we let up 20 points in the first quarter and then only six the rest of the way, so we did a good job adjusting”
For Pittsfield, Patrick Rindfuss threw for 291 yards and four touchdowns. Davon Solomon caught three of those touchdowns and added 142 yards receiving.
Pittsfield was able to get the better of Wahconah last year when these two teams met with undefeated records at the end of the Fall 2 season in the spring, but this time around, Wahconah proved to be too much.
Wahconah will host Lee next Friday, while Pittsfield will look to regroup against Amherst at home.