Haven’t we been here before?
Greenfield High School and Turners Falls High School will celebrate the 90th anniversary of their Thanksgiving Day football rivalry by, in an unprecedented new twist, playing for the second time in a season when they get together this morning at 10:30 at Veterans Memorial Field in Greenfield.
The teams have met every year on Thanksgiving Day since the first meeting in 1927, when Greenfield beat Turners Fall, 13-7. Since then, the rivalry has been dominated by Greenfield, which owns a 59-22-8 edge in the series and had never lost more than two straight years until recently, when the Indians turned the tables on the Green Wave.
Greenfield carried that dominance into the new millenium, winning nine games in a row between 1997 and 2005, before the Indians finally snapped the streak in 2006 with a 14-8 victory. Greenfield went on to win the next four years, but had that modest winning streak stopped in 2011 when the Indians won 7-6.
Little did anyone then know then the win would mark the start of the historic longest Indians winning streak in the history of the rivalry. Turners Falls enters this morning’s game having won five straight. Four of those five wins have been by a single score or less (2013’s 28-14 was the only game decided by more than eight points). But for the first time in the history of the rivalry, the Indians have a long winning streak to try to keep alive.
That has a different sentiment for the players in the game. Previously, no Greenfield senior wanted to be on one of the few teams to lose to Turners Falls. Now, it’s the Indians’ seniors who have the pressure of not losing the winning streak to the Green Wave. Turners Falls Chris Lapointe, who has a 5-1 record in Turkey Day games and has now won against Greenfield as a player, assistant coach and head coach, said that he doesn’t believe the pressure is any different.
“There is and always was the sense of excitement when playing for Turners to get to play Greenfield,” he said. “No matter if you lost four in a row or won once, the excitement and pressure didn’t change. You just work hard and aim to go out a winner the last time you don the blue and white.”
Greenfield coach Mike Kuchieski said that he wants to instill some of the tradition of Turkey Day to build up the struggling program.
“You always want to win on Thanksgiving,” he said. “We’ve had some difficult years lately and we need to look at our program as a whole and bring the pride back. It starts with this game and making the players understand the history and importance this game has to the community and the school.”
One factor Turners Falls will have to overcome and regroup from is Saturday’s 44-6 loss to Maynard High School in the MIAA Division IV-A state semifinals. That marked the first loss of the season for the Indians (10-1) but, more importantly for this game, the Indians need to refocus on the task at hand, which Lapointe said should not be too difficult.
“They’re upset about the loss but came right back in for film work this weekend,” Lapointe said. “This is the last time the seniors on this team get to wear the jersey and they want to go out the proper way. They are excited about the rivalry game and they want to get into it.”
As for the Indians’ opponent, Greenfield struggled this season and finished with a 3-6 record but does have plenty to build on. The Green Wave comes into the game on a modest two-game winning streak, winning its assigned games over Smith Vocational & Agricultural High School (36-16) and Mohawk Trail Regional High School (44-8). And remember, of Greenfield’s six losses, three have come by one score or less.
Perhaps the biggest intangible Greenfield has going for it is that the Wave knows it can hang with the Indians since the teams already played once this season. Due to a new quirk in the scheduling, Greenfield and Turners Falls met prior to Turkey Day for the first time ever this season, that coming back on Sept. 30. Turners Falls scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to escape with a 8-0 victory, but Greenfield, which was playing without 1,000-yard rusher RJ Byrd, who was benched due to a violation of team rules, hung tough.
“I think playing that first game works both ways,” Lapointe said. “We know we need to give it our best effort against them, but they also know that they were right there without their best runner. I know that it certainly boosts our players, because they were ticked about how we played that game.”
Kuchieski said that he doesn’t believe playing that first time will make much of a difference, because he doesn’t know if Byrd’s presence that day would have made a difference.
“I don’t think him not playing had anything to do with it,” the coach said. “RJ has matured as a sophomore throughout the course of the season. A couple of games after the Turners game, he wasn’t getting a lot of carries because I don’t like forcing kids into situations I’m not sure they are ready for. I don’t know if he would have made a difference against Turners.”
Both teams will offer a heavy dose ground games as Turners Falls’ Quinn Doyle and Greenfield’s Byrd have each eclipsed 1,000 yards. Doyle is a senior who has now put together back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns, and he is looking to cap off his high school career with another huge Turkey Day performance. Lapointe pointed out that Doyle took over at tailback last season as a junior but saw limited game action prior to that because Turners Falls did not have a junior varsity program. He capped off his first year last fall, by racking up 215 yards on Turkey Day and being named the MVP, something he will look to try to duplicate this year.
Doyle has been slowed of late, some of it having to do with an ankle injury suffered late in the season against Frontier Regional School, some of it to do with playing against tough defenses. The senior has not gone over 100 yards in any of the past five games but he still leads Franklin County with 1,427 yards on 284 carries. He has also scored 18 touchdowns to lead the area.
“He’s good man, as good as they come,” Kuchieski said. “There’s a bunch of reasons that they were western Mass. champs, and he is one of those reasons.”
Another Indian backfield threat is Jack Darling, who has carried the ball 100 times this year for 657 yards. Darling was also filling in at fullback over the course of the year after John Driscoll broke his foot in the second game of the season. Driscoll will make his return this morning while providing extra blocking on running plays. Ricky Craver has also run the ball well this season when asked, and has accumulated 360 yards.
Greenfield will counter with Byrd, who does most of the heavy lifting in the running game. The sophomore comes into the game off back-to-back games of 241 and 271 yards. He’ll look to be heard from in his first Turkey Day appearance at running back. Kuchieski said he has been impressed with how Byrd has matured not only on the field, but off of it this season while developing into a leader.
“He is becoming a leader on the field, but I’m not really about stats,” Kuchieski said. “I care about how they are as people. It’s great that he has all these yards, but I want to see the kid be a great citizen in the community. I like winning football games, too, but I would like him to be a citizen first and a football player second.”
Two other players who have developed their leadership roles are the opposing quarterbacks. Tionne Brown is in his third and final year as starting Turners Falls quarterback after he was thrust into the role as a sophomore due to injuries. Brown has seen his stock rise over the course of the year, and was instrumental in the Indians’ playoff run. In the Indians’ three postseason games, Brown completed 21 of 44 passes for 363 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions. He enters the game 40 of 88 on the season for 761 yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Greenfield counters with first-year starter Tyler Miner, a lefty quarterback who has had to learn the position on the fly. Miner is not usually asked to throw it more than five or six times a game but has completed 11 of 20 passes in his past three games and is 22 of 47 on the season for 337 yards with one touchdown and two picks.
“I can’t say enough about that kid,” Kuchieski said. “He’s really stepped it up and become a leader on the field. I’m pretty proud of the way he has done his job. He has done what is asked of him. That’s a credit to him and his work ethic throughout the season.”
When Brown goes airborne, he has a number of targets in Owen Ortiz, Nick Croteau, Craver, Darling and Doyle. Ortiz leads the team in receiving yards with 12 catches for 281 yards, while Craver is right behind with 11 for 257. Croteau has nine catches for 164 yards.
Townsley leads the Green Wave receivers with 10 catches for 109 yards. Colin Kosuda has six catches for 87 yards, and Nate Haselton has five for 82.
There are plenty of other players who will make a difference in the game, and both coaches pointed out a few other players to keep an eye on from the stands. Turners Falls linebacker Tahner Castine has posted his second consecutive season with over 100 tackles, and the hard-hitting senior has been among the best in the area all year. Will Roberge is another linebacker who doesn’t get a ton of ink. Roberge makes up for a lack of size with his speed and plays physical, according to Lapointe. Senior Ricky Smith is the third player; he moved over from guard to center on offense this season and has done a nice job.
As for Greenfield, two defensive players to keep an eye on are linebacker Tyler Townsley and lineman Colin Cloutier. Townsley is 5-foot-7, 135 pounds (soaking wet, according to Kuchieski), but is a tough kid who has been a force at linebacker, while Cloutier is more suited to play linebacker but his toughness has landed him up front, where he is an undersized defensive lineman.
It should be another memorable game. With the forecast calling for a chance of mixed precipitation, anything can happen. Both coaches are looking for a solid effort from both sides.
“We just want to play a full game,” Lapointe said. “These kids have put a lot of work in and we want to send the seniors off on a high note.”
Kuchieski concurred: “We have 18 kids who have dedicated themselves to the football program. We’ll work our tails off right until the end.”