PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Taconic football team lost a defensive battle to Chicopee, 14-6, at home on Thursday night in the rain.
It was a typical rainy game with both teams having a tough time holding on to the football or keeping the penalties to a minimum.
Throughout the game, both teams struggled to avoid careless offsides, false starts and holding penalties and with the rain it made it even more difficult trying to move the ball through the air. Neither team was able to establish a passing game and with the rain; the run game was littered with fumbled snaps and loose carries.
The game went to the halftime break with no score and really no momentum for either team on the offensive end. Even with the tough playing conditions the defensive sides really did step up making big plays on third and fourth downs.
After the break, the first big play of the game came by way of a fumble by Taconic inside its 20 yard-line. It didn’t take long for Chicopee to make the Thunder pay, and after such a good game defensively from Taconic the short field was too much to overcome. Chicopee connected on a 15-yard pass for the game's first score. The Pacerss converted the two point conversion and jumped out to a 8-0 lead in the third quarter.
It was up to Taconic to bounce back after the score, and it finally started to get a little bit going offensively with a couple first down. Unfortunately, for the Thunder it was unable to put enough together and turned it over on downs.
Chicopee, building off the momentum, was able to drive down the field and get the second score of the game with a QB keeper from 10 yards out, giving the visitors a 14-0 lead.
It looked like that was going to be in for Taconic, but it was able to bounce back and fight its way back into the game.
The Thunder was able to move the ball with the help from a big run from Matthew McIntosh to get inside the red zone. A couple plays later, Xavier Nicholls punched it, in but the two-point conversion was unsuccessful, leaving Taconic trailing Chicopee 14-6 with under 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Taconic’s defense stepped up once again and force a turnover on downs giving the offense the position to get a game tying drive. With less than three minutes left, Taconic was moving the ball and got inside the 30 yard line but was racing against the clock. The Thunder found itself with a fourth down try and were unable to convert, giving the ball back to Chicopee and the ability to kneel the ball and get out of there with a 14-6 win.
Taconic fell to 3-3 after back to back shutout wins. It will hope to keep the defense sharp next week when it goes up against city rival Pittsfield.
