It’s Thanksgiving in September for area high school football teams.
Two games usually reserved for Thanksgiving annually, will be played tonight when Greenfield High School visits the Bourdeau Fields Complex in Turners Falls to take on Turners Falls High School, and Athol High School heads to the Woodward Complex in Orange to take on Mahar Regional School. Both games have 7 p.m. kickoffs.
Those are just two of the five games on tap locally this weekend. Tonight’s third game features Mohawk Trail Regional High School hosting Lee High School, also at 7, at Pollard Field in Buckland.
On Saturday afternoon, Franklin County Technical School makes its Intercounty League North debut when it takes on preseason favorite and thus far unbeaten Frontier Regional School at 1 in Turners Falls. Pioneer Valley Regional School puts its unbeaten mark on the line Saturday at 3 by hosting Tri-County League preseason favorite Ware High School at 3.
All eyes will be on Orange and Turners Falls tonight when two of the state’s historic Turkey Day rivalries are being played during the regular season. The teams will still meet on Thanksgiving morning this season, but that will be the second go-round, and not everyone is happy about it.
“It definitely is weird. I do miss the once-a-year thing. I just think it is more special that way,” Turners Falls running back Quinn Doyle said. “There’s just more build-up for Turkey Day and people get more amped to play. It’s still a big game, though, and Greenfield is going to come at it looking to win just as much as we are.”
That sentiment seemed to be echoed by the communities involved in the week leading up, and Turners Falls coach Chris Lapointe said he has been hearing from alum who are not going to make the trip back for this Greenfield-Turners Falls game, even though they normally will on Thanksgiving. Turners Falls wideout and defensive back Nick Croteau also agreed that not everyone loves the idea of playing Greenfield in the middle of the season, but he stressed the importance of the game as it pertains to the postseason.
“A lot of people aren’t that happy about it, but Greenfield is going to come with everything they’ve got, and we need to be ready for it,” he said.
Even though the game has a different feel, the players still realize the opportunity in front of them, that being that each could be the first team to beat the other twice in one season.
“It’s definitely a little different (playing Greenfield in September), but it’s still a game, you still prepare the same way and practice just as hard,” Indians’ linebacker and guard Tahner Castine said. “It has its good and its bads. The whole jittery feeling you get around Thanksgiving, that big-game feeling, and the tradition that goes along with it — that’s not there. But there is the big thing that it’s our senior year and being the first team to beat Greenfield twice in a year, that would be really great.”
The Indians come in with an unblemished 3-0 record with an offense that’s piled up points in the early going, scoring 94 through three games. Much of that success has been due to a huge start to the season by senior running back Quinn Doyle, who has toted the ball 101 times for 555 yards with seven touchdowns.
“I just think our line is doing a great job,” Doyle said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s me, Ricky or Jack carrying the ball, and that’s a credit to how well the line has played.”
Ricky Craver has had a great start to the season running the ball as well, with 17 carries for a whooping 230 yards, a 13.5 yards-per-carry average. Quarterback Tionne Brown has not been called on to throw the ball a ton this season, but he has found success when he goes to the air. In fact, Brown is the only area quarterback completing more than 50 percent of his passes, going 6-for-10 on the season.
The Turners Falls defense has not been as strong of late. After shutting out Lee High School on Week 1, the Indians have allowed 64 points in the past two weeks. That puts the Indians in stark contrast to the Green Wave, as Greenfield has been very strong defensively but struggled on offense in the first three weeks.
The Green Wave is 1-2 but has allowed 34 points over three games and has not allowed more than 15 points yet this season. The Wave has done a nice job of flying to the ball in the early going, and defenders have tackled well. In last week’s 15-12 loss to Belchertown, the Wave allowed just two touchdowns, one on a short field following a fumble, the other on a long passing play. Greenfield also allowed two passing touchdowns in its win over Mahar.
Offensively, the Green Wave’s bright spot has been sophomore running back RJ Byrd, who is third in the area in rushing with 334 yards on 66 carries. That gives him more yards than any Green Wave running back accumulated last season, and puts him 300 yards shy of former Greenfield quarterback Max Pirozhkov, who led the Wave in rushing with 644 yards last season. Tyler Townsley plays more of a fullback role with the Wave and has 132 yards on 28 carries thus far. Quarterback Tyler Miner is 5-for-14 passing for 67 yards.
The Indians have won five straight games in the all-time series, and they now have the chance to not only win six straight for the first time ever, but also set themselves up for the first-ever two-game, single-season sweep in the series, which would jump their all-time best winning streak to seven.
The 90th season of the Greenfield-Turners Falls rivalry, this one figures to be as good a game as anything Turkey Day serves up in the rivalry. The series all-time record stands at 59-22-8, Greenfield.
Athol at Mahar — Like the aforementioned Greenfield-Turners Falls game, this is also a Turkey Day rivalry game. The last time rivals played twice in one season was in 1948 when Arms Academy and Deerfield High School met twice. The teams split that season. … Last year marked the 80th meeting between Athol and Mahar, and the Red Raiders own the all-time mark in the series at 49-30-1. Athol won last year’s meeting, 24-6, giving the Raiders two straight wins over Mahar, and giving them wins in three of the past four Turkey Day games. … Both teams picked up their first win of the season last week. After losing its first two games, Athol earned a 34-0 win over Monument Mountain. Mahar got its first W of the season with a 20-7 victory over Ludlow. … Mahar quarterback Sam Paul leads area QBs in yardage with 215. He is 11-for-32 with an area-high four touchdowns … Mahar’s leading receiver is Miller Richardson, who has three catches for 48 yards and a touchdown. That mark is the third-most catches in the county this season, as passing is down. … Mahar running back John Gariepy is sixth in area rushing with 245 yards. … Athol’s Tyler Lutz is eighth in area rushing with 209 yards, those coming on just 19 carries. He is also tied for fourth in area scoring with 26 points.
Lee at Mohawk — After winning its first two games of the season, Mohawk was shut out, 28-0, by former Turkey Day rival Franklin Tech last weekend. … Defending WMass Division IV champion Lee comes into the game 1-2 on the season but earned its first victory last Friday night when it shutout Pathfinder, 31-0. … Jonathan Herbert has been an all-purpose back for the Warriors. The senior is fifth in area rushing with 256 yards, and is second in receiving with 26 yards on four catches. Herbert is tied for fourth in area scoring with 26 points. … These two teams met two years ago (after Lee felt it was snubbed in the WMass Division IV playoffs), and the Wildcats took out their frustrations on the Warriors, beating Mohawk, 50-0. … Mohawk was moved into the IL West this season, the four remaining teams are from the Berkshires. Even though Mohawk is considered a Berkshire “neighbor,” the Warriors have not played many teams Berkshire teams in recent years. Mohawk enters the game on a five-game losing streak against Berkshire County teams. The Warriors’ last win against a Berkshire County team came back in 2009, when the Warriors defeated McCann Tech. … Mohawk is going to try to contain a running attack that racked up 212 yards and four touchdowns against Pathfinder last week. Lukas Loehr was the workhorse for Lee, rushing 18 times for 69 yards and a touchdown. Four different backs scored TDs in that game for the Wildcats.
Frontier at FC Tech — Although the schools are separated by less than 10 miles, Frontier and Franklin Tech have not met on the gridiron since opening day 1997 when the teams also played in Turners Falls. Frontier won that game, 22-0. The teams’ only other meeting came in 1996 (the first varsity season for the Eagles), when Frontier won 35-16 in a game played at Deerfield Academy. … Frontier running back Dylan Landry is second in area rushing despite having only played twice because of the early bye week for Frontier. Landry has 358 yards on only 28 carries, an average of 12.9 yards per carry. … Frontier’s Seth Gewanter is second in area scoring with 34 points, followed by Landry with 28 points. Gewanter has scored five touchdowns despite carrying the ball only 26 times for 133 yards. … Franklin Tech returned to the area last week after playing its first two games on lengthy road trips and losing both. The Eagles earned their first win of the year with a 28-0 victory over Mohawk. … Eagles’ running Dylan Mailloux ranks fourth in area rushing with 290 yards on 56 carries. He is also sixth in area scoring with 24 points. He is one of six area players who have already scored four or more touchdowns. … The Red Hawks make it no secret that they like to run the ball, which is apparent from Frontier quarterback Myles Freeman’s numbers: he has the fewest attempts (8), completions (4) and passing yards (57) of any area QB. The next lowest passing total by an area QB? Franklin Tech’s Seth Aldrich, who has just 58 yards passing.
Ware at Pioneer — This is a chance for Pioneer to really show its might. The Panthers are 2-0 for the first time since 2013 and are looking to go 3-0 for the first time since the rebirth of the program in 2005. To do that, they will have to beat a Ware team that was the preseason favorite to win the TCL. Ware is 1-1 on the year, its lone loss coming to unbeaten Mt. Greylock Regional High School, the favorite to win the IL West. … Ware has won the past three matchups between the teams and leads the all-time series, 6-3. … Pioneer sophomore Jake Wallace leads area receivers with nine receptions for 166 yards and one touchdown. No other receiver in the area has more than four receptions. Expect to see the ball flying through the air in this game, as both teams like to throw the ball. Ware quarterback Ryan Johnson is 14-for-28 for 181 yards. To put that in perspective, only one area quarterback (Mahar’s Sam Paul) has attempted more passes, and Paul has played three games. Pioneer quarterback Alex Tyson has only played two games as well (he started as running back in the first game), but he has managed to put the ball up 23 times, completing 11 passes for 204 yards. He is also one of only three area QBs (joining Frontier’s Freeman and Turners Falls’ Brown) without an interception. The other two QBs have only combined to throw 18 passes this year.