LEE, Mass. – The Lee football team has made a lot of noise this fall.
On Friday, it made its loudest statement of the season.
Devin Schwab ran for 121 yards, Jaydee Reber ran for 71 and Omari Smith threw for 129 yards in a 47-15 win over Hoosac Valley to improve to 7-0 and clinch an Intercounty South Division title.
“We really didn’t know how good we were, how good we could be,” Lee coach Tom Salinetti said. “I think a lot of people think we were untested. … As far as the scores in our league are concerned, they don’t look great. But the league isn’t as bad as it seems.
“But we still needed to know that we were being tested. And coming out here like this tonight and doing what we did was pretty sweet.”
After posting shutouts in its last three games, Lee gave up a season-high 15 points. But no one was complaining with the result.
“They’re a good team, they’re a good football team,” Lee senior Brendan Albert said. “We knew it was going to be chippy. At the end of the day, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. We came, we saw, we conquered.
“I love this group of guys. Every single one of these guys from top to bottom is amazing. They give us a good look in practice. They fly around. We’re a great team. We’re just going to keep progressing and keep getting better.”
Lee went into the game as the No. 8 team in Division 8 in the statewide in-season power rankings. A win by the maximum point margin over No. 14 Hoosac Valley (5-2) will help the Wildcats in their bid to get a home game in the playoffs that get underway in two weeks.
The Wildcats came out strong on Friday night, taking a 20-0 lead by midway through the second quarter.
After the teams traded punts on their first two possessions, the Wildcats caught a break when Max Daigneault recovered a fumble at the Hoosac Valley 9.
Three plays later, Wildcat QB Omari Smith went in from the 1 to make it 6-0. Lee lined up for the Luke Gamberoni point after try, but after an offsides call against the Hurricanes, Lee opted to go for the two-point conversion. Scwab ran it in to make it 8-0.
That is where it stood after one quarter, but Lee was knocking on the door after a 55-yard Reber run took it to the 12. And on the second play of the second quarter, Dawson Reber ran it in from the 1 to make it 14-0.
Lee’s second possession of the second quarter ended in another 1-yard plunge by Smith, the second of three rushing touchdowns for the signal-caller.
“The offensive line was phenomenal tonight,” Salinetti said. “They’re a wrecking crew. They walled down so well tonight against a tremendously good defensive line. These guys are monsters.”
Schwab agreed.
“Our O-line is the best in the league,” Schwab said. “I can’t even describe it. Without these guys, we wouldn’t be right now. So shout out to my O-line, baby.”
Hoosac Valley, down 20 points, garnered a little momentum to end the half.
First, the Hurricanes went 68 yards on six plays – all through the air. Kamarion Kastner capped the drive with a 13-yard completion to Qwanell Bradley. Aidan Wicks’ kick was good, and Lee’s lead was 20-7 with 3:39 left in the half.
Then, after the Wildcats drove from their 14 to the plus-19 in the closing seconds of the half, the Hurricanes’ Jacob Borawski got a sack to stop the drive and end the half with a 12-point margin.
But Lee stretched its lead with a 57-yard drive to open the second half. Dawson Reber scored from the 5, and Gamberoni’s point after made it 27-7.
Hoosac gambled on fourth-and-2 from its 28 on its ensuing possession, but Lee’s D-line stuffed the run. And the Wildcats’ offense needed three plays to get into the end zone on a 19-yard Schwab run that made it 34-7 with just less than six minutes left in the third.
The Hurricanes’ next possession ate up most of the remainder of the quarter but ended with a 3-yard run by Kastner and a Kastner conversion to make it 34-14 going to the fourth quarter.
Lee dominated the rest of the way.
An illegal touching on by Hoosac Valley on the ensuing kickoff gave the Wildcats the ball on the plus-35. And they overcame two 15-yard penalties of their own in a nine-play drive that ended in Dawson Reber’s 1-yard run to make it 40-15.
Lee’s Blake Hoff all but sealed the win with an interception and 12-yard return to the Hoosac Valley 15 moments later. Smith’s 16-yard run and Gamberoni’s point after with 2:35 on the clock provided the final margin and sent the game to running time.
Lee, which honored the school’s 1993 and 1994 Super Bowl winning teams prior to the game, will look to add the 2024 team’s name to a long list of Wildcat greats when it closes the regular season next Friday at home against Frontier.
Hoosac Valley will look to stay in the postseason hunt on Saturday when it hosts Easthampton.
