SOUTH DEERFIELD — The Boston Red Sox can only wish their batting average is as good as Aaron Landry and the Frontier Regional School football team’s on this day.
The Red Hawks scored on their first two offensive plays and never looked back en route to a 40-12 Intercounty League rout of Greenfield High School on Booster Day in South Deerfield.
“We stayed focused in the beginning of the game, and I’ve been saying all week that we need to come out firing and perform well, and that’s what we did,” said Frontier quarterback Myles Freeman (2-for-2 passing 91 yards, two carries, 5 yards).
Freeman got the party started on the first play from scrimmage, when he uncorked a long bomb down the center of the field to streaking junior tight end Cole Price for a 62-yard touchdown pass. It was the first of two passes Price would haul in, accounting for 91 of the Red Hawk’s 97 aerial yards.
“He’s a hard worker and deserves to be our starting end,” said Freeman of Price. “He’s earned the position, and is someone I definitely enjoy connecting to.”
Greenfield managed to stop the Steven Worthley (6 carries, 23 yards) two-point conversion run to keep the score 6-0.
The Green Wave went three-and-out on the next series but Frontier managed to block the ensuing punt, giving the Red Hawks the ball on the 4-yard line, from which Freeman took it around left end for a quick touchdown. The point-after run came up short, keeping the score at 12-0.
From there, Landry and the Frontier running game took over, with the junior speedster scoring on the next four offensive series with runs covering 29, 13, 49 and 74 yards. Landry only ran the ball seven times in the half, totaling 182 yards on the day, 165 of which came from touchdown runs alone.
“(Greenfield) was overloading the right side,” Frontier Coach Don Gordon said. “They were putting their bigger, stronger players there, and the left side was wide open so we went that way.”
Landry’s running performance combined with the punishing Frontier run defense sent the somewhat shell-shocked Wave into halftime trailing 40-0. Undeterred, the Wave came out determined to make a game of it in the second half, when sophomore back RJ Byrd (20 carries, 110 yards) broke the shutout on the second series with a 66-yard touchdown run. The point-after pass by senior quarterback Tyler Miner fell incomplete, keeping the score at 40-6.
Gordon called off the dogs on offense in the second half, with the exception of fullback Seth Gewanter, who generated 23 of his 30 yards on four second-half carries. The Frontier starting line remained in the game, but sophomore quarterback Matt Hildreth ran the offense and went 1-for-1 passing on a 6-yard fourth quarter toss to senior tight end Joe Morawski.
Greenfield got into the end zone one more time on the first play of the fourth quarter, when senior fullback Tyler Townsley ran it in from 3 yards out. The point-after pass fell incomplete, creating the 40-12 final.
“They are a good team,” Greenfield Coach Mike Kuchieski said of Frontier. “But everything that could have happened to us did today. Fumbles, blocked kick, the whole nine yards, and you can’t get away with not taking care of the ball against a good team like that.”
Greenfield has a bye this week before taking on Franklin County Technical School, while Frontier travels to Athol High School Friday night to take on the Red Raiders. Kickoff time is 7 at O’Brien Field.