NORTHFIELD — When the game is on the line, big-time players step up, and Pioneer Valley Regional School has a few big-time football players.
The Panthers rode the legs of junior tailback Wyatt Keith and the leadership of junior quarterback Scott Perlberg to a 27-26, come-from-behind, Tri-County League win over the Mohawk Regional School Warriors in Northfield Saturday.
“I just try to keep two hands on the ball and keep running,” Keith said of his two touchdown, 171 yard rushing performance. “It’s all about the team.”
“We wanted to get him the chance to run the ball, and he definitely delivered today,” Pioneer Coach Paul Worth said.
The elements may have played into the Panthers’ strategy to keep the ball on the ground, a game plan that worked well, especially in the first series, where they marched 58 yards on 10 plays before Keith took it in from 4 yards out for the touchdown. The point-after kick sailed wide left to keep it 6-0.
Mohawk answered on the next series, when junior back Lundon Summers (9 carries, 101 yards) finished a six-play, 60-yard drive with a two-point touchdown run. The PAT pass fell incomplete, preserving the 6-6 score. Mohawk scored again on the next series on a 15-yard Jordon Grenier run (15 carries, 120 yards). Pioneer’s Karl Wheeler intercepted the point-after pass and appeared to run it back for two points, but the interception was negated by a Panther penalty, keeping the score 12-6.
Wheeler saw the Mohawk end zone again on the very next play, returning the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for the touchdown. A Keith kick gave Pioneer the lead back at 13-12. The Warriors would regain the lead late in the second when Mohawk quarterback Ryan Walker (2 for 6 passing for 48 yards and one interception) hit Grenier in the right corner of the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown pass.
Walker took in the two-point conversion run to make it 20-13 at the half.
The drizzle and slick field conditions created a break for Pioneer early in the third quarter, when the Panthers recovered a fumble at the Mohawk 36. Five plays later, senior running back Tristan Dresser (7 carries, 47 yards) found the end zone on a 10-yard touchdown run. The point-after kick just missed, keeping the score 20-19 Mohawk.
The Warriors would extend the lead midway through the fourth quarter, when Summers ran in his third touchdown of the day, an 18-yard blast off left tackle, which made the score 26-19. The point-after pass fell incomplete, a miss which would prove to be extremely costly for the Warriors down the stretch.
Pioneer got the ball back and began working it into Mohawk territory, only to have the drive stall at the 43. A Panther holding penalty suddenly turned fourth and four into fourth and 14 back inside Pioneer territory with less than a minute to go.
“I knew we needed a big play,” Perlberg said. “And that’s all I was thinking about.”
It came, in the form of a 27-yard pass from Perlberg to Wheeler, which gave Pioneer a first down at the Mohawk 33. From there, it was all Keith, who ran the ball on the next four downs before running it in for the touchdown on fourth and 1 from the 4 with 17 seconds left, making the score 27-25.
Worth elected to go for the two-point conversion and the win rather than kicking for the tie. That put the ball in the hands of Perlberg, who set up what looked like a passing formation with three receivers to the right. Rather than throw it, Perlberg bulled his way up the middle, just breaking the plane of the goal line to give the Panthers the 27-26 lead.
Mohawk got two more cracks on offense, but the game ended when a Walker Hail Mary pass was intercepted.
“They deserved to win that game,” Mohawk Coach Doug McCoud said of Pioneer. “They beat us up pretty good, and they were better than we were.”
Pioneer is at home Saturday against Smith Vocational School. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.