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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — After completing the first-ever undefeated regular season in school history two weeks ago, the 2014 McCann Tech Hornet football team one upped itself on Saturday afternoon by defeating the visiting Turners Falls Indians 12-7 to become the first ever Western Mass champion in school history.
"It's unbelievable," McCann coach Bob LeClair said. "I've been an assistant coach and won Super Bowls and championships. This one is mine. This is our team's and to be the head coach of a team that finally won one, it's just validation for years and years of coaching."
"It's just amazing," added senior captain Gustavo Montoya. "I've never felt this way before about a football game. Freshman year we made it to the Super Bowl and it felt great but winning this Western Mass title, I'm on top of the world right now. I thank my team and my coaches for everything they have done for me. Effort and heart is all it is. Coming into this game we knew we could beat this team. All we needed was our hearts and we had them with us today and look what the result was."
"It really is great. It's not really for us though," said senior Adam LeClair. "It's for all the people for 50-plus years that didn't make it to this point and didn't have this chance to get here and play in the championship. Bringing home that Western Mass title for the first time really is great for us but for all the players that never got this chance, we did it for them."
The McCann Tech alumni and fans were in full force at the Hornets Nest as they lined the hill and filled the bleachers. They came out and got to see an extraordinary football game between two undefeated teams fighting for that D-VI Western Mass championship title. The Hornets made plenty of mistakes but when big plays needed to be made they stepped up.
"We played an outstanding team today but somehow we rose to the occasion multiple times today," LeClair said.
After a fake punt pass late in the final quarter with the score 12-7 converted fourth down and 8 for Turners, bringing them into McCann territory, the Hornet defense came up huge on fourth down and inches, stuffing Turners up the gut attempt at the first down.
With just 5:35 remaining in the game, the Hornets needed just a few first downs to milk the rest of the clock and possibly add to their lead. But on their second play junior quarterback Nick Lincoln was supposed to hit his receiver on a short slant route but instead he took a shot down the field and the Indians came down with the pick giving themselves another shot to score the go-ahead touchdown. Despite the mistake, Lincoln never got down and on Turners' ensuing possession he sacked their quarterback on fourth down and two to get his team the ball back.
"Definitely for a quarterback you have to be short-minded," Lincoln said. "Let things go and just think that it's going to turn around. The quarterback happened to run my way which was a mistake and I put everything I had into that hit and it went good for us. I mean being a junior, it's different. People don't listen to me as much as if I were a senior captain but I take the reins the best I can and try to calm people down when they need it. Just try to be the best leader I can."
A leader he was for his Hornet team as he ended the game with both of his team's touchdowns, scoring on quarterback sneaks from 4 and 2 yards out. Lincoln really stepped up for his team in the second quarter with the use of his arm. McCann was struggling to move the ball on the ground against a tough Turners front line as they had totaled just six rushing yards before Lincoln found his senior receivers Levi Lawson and Rahmer Vincent. Facing third down and 16, Lincoln rolled right and found Lawson for a 34-yard gain.
Then it was Vincent's turn and he didn't disappoint, hauling in four straight passes to set up Lincoln for the first touchdown of the afternoon. Vincent first snagged a 16-yard catch over the middle and followed that up with a three-yard gain on a quick screen to the left sideline. Then on the next play he pulled down a 30-yard pass and then another 14-yard grab giving his team first and goal from the Indians 4.
"Their corner was way shorter than me so I knew that I could have a field day out there," Vincent said about the performance. "Then when we scored the momentum went right up for us."
Though McCann had grabbed the momentum and their defense was playing lights out, two interceptions and a fumble on their final three possessions of the half halted any chance of extending their lead as they went into the intermission up 6-0.
Coming out of half-time, Turners Falls picked up their intensity. They forced the Hornets to punt and then started to put together a nice drive. But mistakes hurt them and after moving the ball 45 yards up the field to the McCann 25 it was junior Eathan Heller who came up big for the Hornets. He intercepted the Indians pass attempt and returned it 30 yards up to the 47.
Heller wasn't done there as he ripped off an 18-yard run before senior Brett Pecor started to do the heavy lifting. Pecor took his next two carries for 11 yards each and then on a beastly run he plowed through multiple defenders, dragging them down to the Turners 4-yard line, setting up Lincoln for his second touchdown plunge of the day.
"In the second half we noticed that when we spread out all of our wide receivers and widened the field out, the middle was wide open," said Pecor. "We were just running 32, 34 blasts right up the middle, right up the gut and it was working for us."
Going down 12-0 sparked something in Turners Falls, though, and on its ensuing drive it completed a 52-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead down to just five with the whole fourth quarter to play. But the McCann made a stop on Turners' next offensive possession on fourth and inches and then Lincoln laid a massive hit to sack their quarterback on fourth down giving the Hornets the ball with just two minutes and forty seconds between them and their school's first ever Western Mass championship.
Pecor and Heller came through again, as Pecor converted their first first down on a 7-yard power run off the right side which put him over 100 yards for the day. And Heller finished the game off on third and five when he took a toss sweep around the right end and rumbled 25 yards to seal the victory.
"This feels great because last year against Turners, first round of playoffs they took us out," said Vincent. "So this redemption is awesome."
"This team. It's amazing. We've been to these places twice and got shut down and we finally pulled through," Lawson said. "All the alumni have come here and they are so thankful for what we have done. Bringing this school this great honor and it's just amazing."
"It feels so amazing," added Pecor. "You know coming up as a freshman, the team that went to the Super Bowl, we learned a lot from those guys and we carried that on throughout our seasons. Just came together as a family and put it all together. Here we are winning the Western Mass title. It's awesome."