TURNERS FALLS — Bailey Young ran for 149 yards and scored three touchdowns, including the insurance score with just 1:31 to play, as Franklin County Technical School outlasted McCann Technical School, 28-18, in nonconference assigned-game football action on a rainy and foggy Friday night.
Connor Berard went off for a game-high 162 rushing yards and scored all three touchdowns for the Hornets (4-4). His third score, a 9-yard run with 7:51 remaining in the fourth quarter, pulled the visitors to within 20-18. On the two-point conversion attempt, from the 8-yard line after an illegal-procedure call, Berard caught a pass from Andrew Koch, but Franklin Tech’s Kyle Snyder stopped him short of the end zone to keep it a two-point spread.
The Eagles (3-6) took over at their own 45 and held the ball for over six minutes, benefiting from an offside call on a fourth-and-5 at the McCann 39 that created a first down. Fourteen plays later, Young barreled in from the 1-yard line. Jared Bergmann then flipped the conversion pass to a leaping Hunter Wozniak in the back right corner of the end zone to bump Franklin Tech’s lead to 28-18.
When Snyder jumped on the ensuing squib kickoff at the McCann 46, all the Eagles had to do was kneel down three times to kill off the remaining clock.
“Defensively, we stepped up. It was a physical game on both sides,” said Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache. “It was tight, but we had that nice drive to punch one in right at the end of the half, and we finished with a nice drive in the fourth quarter.”
Twice in the first half, Franklin Tech went out to a touchdown lead before McCann rallied to tie. The first quarter was scoreless, but the Eagles cashed in their first possession of the second, with a nine-play, 48-yard drive capped by Jared Bergmann’s 15-yard TD run to make it 6-0.
Twenty seconds later, Berard had the Hornets back into a tie at the end of a 70-yard touchdown jaunt, immediately followed by a pair of unsportsmanlike-conduct calls. One was assessed on the extra-point try, on which McCann’s kick was blocked, and the other tagged onto the next kickoff. That gave the Eagles a short field, starting at the McCann 30, and Young promptly snapped off runs of 17 and 13 yards for a 12-6 lead.
Berard’s 37-yard run got McCann close on its next series and he finished the drive with a 2-yard scoring run with 2:59 to go in the half. The extra-point try was sliced wide to the right.
Franklin Tech still had time to get on the board before the half with an 11-play, 67-yard drive, the biggest play coming on Bergmann’s 40-yard option pass to Young that put the ball at the McCann 5. After the Eagles burned their remaining timeouts, the last with 3.6 seconds left, Young converted on fourth-and-goal from the 3 as time expired. He then caught the two-point conversion pass from Owen Bashaw to put the hosts up 20-12 at intermission.
Bergmann added 67 rushing yards on 16 carries as Franklin Tech held a 265-238 edge in total offense, and held the ball for 25:31 of possession time to McCann’s 18:29. Darius Tovani had 49 yards to help Berard for McCann.