ATHOL — In football, special teams play can be a team’s best friend or its worst enemy. For the Franklin County Technical School on this night, it was the latter.
For the second week in a row, the Eagles gave up a long kickoff and punt return touchdowns, which was all the opening Athol High School needed on the way to a 38-13 Intercounty League North football victory Friday night at O’Brien Field.
“No doubt, those plays were big for us,” Athol Coach Bill LaRose said. “Ryan Hulbert made a great block on two guys which sprang our guy on that kickoff return. The whole game turned on those two special teams plays.”
“We didn’t do a great job of tackling on special teams, and that’s the second week that’s happened, so that’s something we need to work on for sure,” Tech Coach Joe Gamache said.
The 85-yard kickoff return by junior Nick Casella and a subsequent 65-yard punt return by senior Tyler Lutz were the low points for a Tech team which seemed to take it to the Red Raiders on both sides of the ball. The Eagles out gained Athol on the ground 122-103 in the first half, and put up 52 passing yards to the Raiders’ zero.
Tech opened up the scoring in the first quarter, when quarterback Seth Aldrich hooked up with a man whose swiftly becoming his favorite target, Caileb Milton, for a 32-yard touchdown pass. The Bailey Young point-after kick made the score 7-0.
Athol would answer on the next series when Lutz took it up the middle and scampered 54 yards for the touchdown. A Trever Mousseau point-after pass fell incomplete, keeping the score 7-6. Tech would extend the lead on what would be an extremely costly next series which saw star senior running back Dylan Mailloux suffer an ankle injury which would eventually force him to leave the game.
Tyler Sakowicz would finish the drive with a three-yard touchdown run, but the Young point after kick hit the left goal post, keeping the score 13-6. It was there that the roof fell in on the Eagles, when Casella ran back the ensuing kickoff, and Lutz the punt return on the next series to make the score 20-13. A blocked Eagle punt on the next series gave the Red Raiders a short field at the Tech 23. Five plays later, Athol was in the end zone again on a Mousseau four-yard quarterback sneak. At Lutz PAT run made the score 28-13 at halftime.
It turns out the Mailloux injury was just the beginning of Tech’s personnel problems. The Eagles also lost kicker Mike Donais to a first-half injury. Sakowicz to a late first half head injury and Chris Ludwig, who also left with a suspected broken hand. With Spencer Telega already out of the lineup due to injury, the offensive cupboard was left somewhat bare for Gamache, who ended up relying largely on the legs and arm of Aldrich in the second half.
“We got pretty banged up for sure, and as a result, we had a lot of kids playing in situations that they weren’t used to,” Gamache said.
Athol began to put up chunks of yardage in a largely ground-based second half attack,rounding out the scoring in the third quarter with a 33-yard touchdown run by fullback Robbie Nelson. Mousette hit junior Joe Ricchiazzi with two-point conversion pass to create the 38-13 final. The Athol second team took over from there led by freshman quarterback Nick Bousquet, who ended up hitting Nelson with a 34-yard pass late in the fourth for Athol’s only completed pass of the day.
Tech has the week to heal up before the “Battle of Powertown” next weekend with the Turners Falls Indians, while Athol prepares to welcome the Frontier Red Hawks to town.
“The Intercounty League title pretty much runs through South Deerfield,” LaRose said. “If we are going to be a playoff contender, we need to win next week.”