BUCKLAND — RJ Byrd needed to eclipse the 200-yard mark for the second straight week to gain 1,000 yards for the season in Thursday night’s independent football game against Mohawk Trail Regional High School. With that in mind, Byrd nearly rushed for 300.

The Green Wave running back finished the night with 271 yards on 32 carries and scored five touchdowns as the Green Wave routed the host Warriors, 44-8, at Pollard Field.

The Green Wave offense was tough to stop, gashing the Mohawk defense throughout. The Warriors had no answer for Byrd, who scored on runs of 26, 10, 19, 47 and 55 yards and one-upped last week’s 241-yard performance with the 271. The output put him at 1,056 yards for the season.

“It was my goal coming into this year. I wanted to get 1,000 yards as a sophomore,” Byrd said. “My line did a really great job blocking tonight.”

The Greenfield defense also played well, a job was made easier by the benching of Mohawk leading rusher Jonny Herbert for the entire first half due to an unexcused absence from school. Without Herbert, the Mohawk offense struggled to move the ball against a Wave defense that held Mohawk to zero or negative yards on 12 running plays. Mohawk finished the game with 120 yards on 43 carries. More than half of those yards belonged to Herbert, who came on in the second half and rushed 10 times for 73 yards.

Greenfield (3-6) took an 8-0 lead on its first possession of the game when Byrd scored on a 26-yard run with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the first quarter. Then quarterback Tyler Miner hit Tyler Townsley with the conversion.

Mohawk (3-7) put together one of its best drives of the night following the touchdown but stalled out on the Green Wave 28 after the Wave defense stood tall and dropped Mohawk for losses on three of four plays.

The Green Wave really put the nail in the coffin in the second quarter with three touchdowns, all by Byrd.

Greenfield followed up the Mohawk turnover on downs with a long drive that nearly ended on a 52-yard touchdown run by Byrd before the play was called back due to a penalty. Miner wound up going 3-for-4 on the drive for 56 yards as he helped drive the team. He finished it off with a 10-yard TD run. Miner completed the conversion to Nate Haselton for a 16-0 lead.

Byrd added a 19-yard touchdown and ran in the conversion with 1:39 left in the half, and it looked like the Wave would lead 24-0 at the break before a fumble on Mohawk’s ensuing possession set the Wave up at the Mohawk 47 with 46.6 seconds left, and Byrd took the first handoff the drive 47 yards for a 30-0 lead at the break.

The sophomore back set up his fifth and final score of the day late in the third quarter by scampering 55 yards to set up first and goal from the 3. He then took the handoff up the middle for the touchdown. Miner hit Townsley with the conversion for a 38-0 lead.

Mohawk finally got on the board on the first play of the fourth quarter when Herbert took a handoff 33 yards to paydirt and rushed in the conversion. Greenfield added a late touchdown on a Miner 4-yard run. Miner finished 5-for-9 for 108 yards, with 79 of those yards coming on three Townsley receptions.

“The line did a nice job blocking, opened up some pretty big holes, and RJ did well running, going north and south,” Miner said. “The guys played hard.”

Greenfield will prepare for its annual Turkey Day showdown with Turners Falls High School at 10:30 a.m. in Greenfield, and it has a lot of positives to build on.

“After our regular season was over, we wanted to go into Turners Falls, 2-0, and we did that,” Byrd said.

Jordan Grenier finished with 24 yards on nine carries for Mohawk, Mason Biagini added 19 yards on six carries, and Kamron Hoff rushed for 15 yards on 16 carries. Mohawk did not attempt a pass in the loss.

Mohawk must regroup for its Thanksgiving Eve game against Frontier Regional School which will take place in Buckland.