GREENFIELD — Was it good or was it short?
That’s what the crowd at Veterans Memorial Field was trying to figure out on Mahar Regional School’s 2-point conversion with 1 minute, 19 seconds left Friday night as Greenfield High School clung to a 14-12 lead.
One official put his hands in the air to signal a successful call on Miller Richardson’s 2-point rushing attempt, while the other official waved it off, causing Mahar coach Chris Bailey and Greenfield coach Mike Kuchieski to both sprint out onto the field at the same time to argue the call. The officials got together and after a few seconds, the referee signaled that the attempt was no good. Greenfield kept the lead and RJ Byrd added a late touchdown against a dejected Mahar defense, and the Green Wave got its first win of the season with a 20-12 victory in Intercounty North Division action.
Greenfield was clinging to a 14-6 lead late when Mahar marched 60 yards on 10 plays in 3:41 and Senators’ quarterback Sam Paul found Jake Lacasse on an 18-yard strike to make it a 2-point game. A roughing the passer penalty on the scoring play moved the 2-point try half the distance to the goal, so the attempt came from the 1½-yard line. Richardson took the handoff up the middle and was lost in a wave of Wave defenders, kicking off the controversy. After the game, first-year Mahar coach Chris Bailey said he thought it was in, but wasn’t going to blame the loss on that one play.
“There were plenty of things we could have done better so we weren’t in that position,” Bailey said. “I’m not about to blame officials. There was confusion, and that’s going to happen. It’s unfortunate, and I thought we had it in, but it’s not just one call.”
Mahar still had a couple of timeouts remaining when Greenfield got the ball back and it looked like the Senators were going to force Greenfield to punt. But Byrd, who had already scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half, got free on a third-and-6 from the Wave 43 and scampered 57 yards for a touchdown. Kuchieski was hollering for Byrd to go down short of the goal line on the play, as Greenfield could have simply taken a knee and run the clock out, but Byrd did not hear the coach, and ran in for the score.
That capped off a monster night for Byrd, who finished with 180 yards on 21 carries and three scores.
“I just thank my linemen for a lot of good blocking tonight,” the sophomore running back said. “On that last one, my coach said I should have gone down, but that was for last week.”
After getting shut out one week ago in a 7-0 loss to McCann Technical School, the Green Wave (1-1) wasted no time in getting on the board against the Senators (0-2), as Greenfield scored on its first two drives of the game. After stopping Mahar on fourth down on the first drive of the game, Greenfield took over on its own 44 and 10 plays later, Byrd scored from 5 yards out and then rushed in the conversion for an 8-0 lead with 1:51 left in the first quarter.
The Green Wave defense again held Mahar on the next drive, forcing a punt, and Greenfield took over on its own 33 early in the second quarter. Byrd helped set up the next touchdown with a 60-yard run on a third-and-15 play, and then finished it off with a 12-yard scoring run that had Greenfield up 14-0 with 6:29 left in the second quarter.
Mahar got on the board late in the first half on a nine-play, 71-yard drive that ended on Paul’s 17-yard pass to Hugo Frost with 24.4 ticks left to make it a 14-6 game at the half.
Greenfield looked like it might take a two-score lead midway through the third quarter when Tyler Townsley took a handoff up the middle for 10 yards. On the play, Townsley was hit low and appeared to land on top of the Mahar defender, never touching down. He kept running on the play and ran to the end zone, but the play was called back and Mahar wound up holding on the drive.
Greenfield did not attempt a pass on the day. Townsley added 26 yards on 7 carries, while Miner had 1 yard on two hauls to account for all the Wave’s offense.
The Greenfield defense played well for the second week in a row, limiting Mahar to 126 yards on the ground. Jordan Desrosiers led the Senator ground attack with 41 yards on eight carries, while John Gariepy had 33 yards on nine hauls. Paul finished 4-of-15 through the air for 57 yards and two touchdowns.
Greenfield hosts Belchertown High School on Friday, while Mahar travels to Ludlow High School.