ADAMS, Mass. — The Hoosac Valley football team held off Ludlow to finish a perfect regular season with a 27-19 victory, Friday night at Renfrew Park.
It was a special day for the Hurricanes (8-0), not only getting a win on Senior Night, but also finishing off the undefeated regular season. Emotions were high but the Hurricanes were able to stay calm and collected on the field against a very good test in Ludlow (1-6).
Liam Feeley, who has been leading the team on the ground all season, continued right where he left off last week. On the first drive of the game for Hoosac, he ran all three times and scored the opening score of the game on a 33-yard touchdown run.
Feeley finished the game with 316 yards and three touchdowns. After the quick score, Ludlow did not go away as they played the field battle with Hoosac on the next two drives only to setup a 27 yard touchdown run to tie the game. Hoosac Valley answered right back with a Carson Meczywor QB keeper for the 2-yard score.
One of the biggest moments of the game happened midway through the second quarter when Ludlow was driving inside Hoosac’s territory and coughed up the ball right into Izaha Stubbs hands. On the next play,Feeley took it to the house for his second score of the game from 88 yards out.
With momentum starting to turn Ludlow did well to punch back and get a score just before the half. Hoosac led 19-13 at the break.
“It was huge getting the score after the turnover, trying to feed off what the defense did is huge, that’s how football is, that’s how sports are,” Hoosac coach Mark Harrington said. "I still feel like after those plays as big as the moments were, we still had something to prove against Ludlow and we had to go back out and continue to execute.”
Hoosac tacked on one more touchdown in the second half, but once again Ludlow stormed right back after benefitting from a long Pass interference play they would punch it in a few plays later to bring them within a score.
Hoosac Valley got the chance to run the clock out in the game with less than 5 minutes left but it was stuffed on a 4th-and-short situation giving the ball right back to Ludlow. Ludlow made things even more interesting after connecting on a 45-yard pass to bring them inside Hoosac Valley’s 30 yard-line with just two minutes to go in the game. After a couple broken plays Hoosac’s defense stepped up at the right time recording back to back sacks to end the game.
“The confidence that those two plays will instill in our guys to understand that, when their backs are against the wall they can do it and lean on each other to get things done,” Harrington said.
Hoosac Valley will get the well deserved week off as they finish up the regular season undefeated awaiting the playoffs schedule to find out who its next opponent will be.
“This game was huge, going into the off week how do you want to remember your last game, It showed we had resilience,” Harrington said. "That is a good Ludlow football team and having everyone come together battling a little bit of adversity was huge. We have a target on our backs and we understand that and our goal is to be up to the challenge.”
Ludlow they will face off against Lee next Friday at home.
