PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Anthony Whiteley led the Taconic Braves to a 43-19 victory over the Drury Blue Devils Friday evening at Wahconah Park.
Whiteley ran for 233 yards and scored three touchdowns for the home team.
"The kid's talented, he's the best back in Western Mass," Taconic coach Jim Ziter said. "I'll put him up against anybody."
Taconic opened the scoring six minutes into the first quarter off a quarterback keep from Jake McNeice; Whitely ran in the 2-point conversion to put them ahead, 8-0. Whiteley and McNeice combined for another score again at the end of the quarter. After a 15-yard run from Whitely, McNiece ran in for the extra two points to end the quarter with a 16-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Whiteley ran for 92 yards; running 33 for touchdown number two and 59 for his third to put the home team ahead, 29-0, going into half-time.
Taconic intercepted a Kody Crosier throw at the 43-yard line and ran it to the end zone with 3 minutes on the clock. But the touchdown was called off due to a penalty against Taconic for roughing.
"We were sloppy all game, I'm not happy with the way we played," Ziter said. "The points, we scored and our offense moved the ball, but the penalties were sloppy."
Taconic had a total of 13 penalties for 135 yards for the game. Eighty of those yards came in the first half.
"Mentally, we have to get better, if you have penalties, you can't give teams extra downs," Ziter continued. "Right here we roughed the kicker and they scored, it's unacceptable."
In the final play of the game; Drury attempted a 35-yard field goal on the fourth down; the kick was no good, but a Taconic penalty was called pushing the Devils up 15 yards to a first down. Kody Crosier ended the game with an 11-yard throw into the end-zone to Hayden Bird to make it 43-19.
The Devils got on board in the third quarter with a 2-yard quarterback keep from Crosier with one minute remaining.
Early in the fourth, Cedric Rose ran 13 yards for Taconic for its final touchdown putting the score at 43-6.
Drury's Jamal Beda, who totaled 94 yards rushing, had a 55-yard run to the 5-yard line to give them first and goal, on the next drive they had a loss of 9.
Crosier then threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Josh Pachecano, putting the score at 43-13.
"I'm still kind of starstruck," Drury coach Seth Shepard said. "We had a couple of injuries that happened late, we turned over the ball a lot in the first half and pinned ourselves in our own territory, but we had four sophomores and two freshman out on the field and we scored 19 points, between the leadership and the captains that were still on the field and battling through some injuries, I'm ecstatic."
After the Blue Devils' second touchdown in the fourth quarter, they returned the onsides kick; Crosier on the next play threw 32 yards to Pachnecano and then ran for 15 before their field goal attempt.
"Granted, at the end of the game some points were scored on our second team, but we're all one team and at the end of the day it's not about one group, it's about the entire program," Ziter said.
Taconic (5-1) hosts undefeated Hoosac Valley next Saturday at 1 p.m. Drury (0-6) hosts Monument Mountain.
