Halloween has come and gone, the calendars have all been flipped and high school football is officially in the postseason.
Two area teams qualified for the playoffs this fall as Turners Falls High School and Frontier Regional School both find themselves battling for western Mass. titles after successful regular-season campaigns. The Powertown picked up the No. 2 seed in the Division 8 Tournament and will host third-seeded Hoosac Valley tonight at 7 at the Bourdeau Fields Complex in Turners. Frontier, meanwhile, earned the third seed in the Division 7 field and will travel to second-seeded South Hadley tonight at 7 in a rematch of last year’s semifinal.
The non-qualifier round got underway Thursday night when Greenfield hosted Putnam but there are three other non-qualifier games tonight featuring area teams. Mohawk hosts Mahar in Buckland at 7 in a battle of area foes, while Franklin Tech will host McCann Tech in Turners Falls at 7 in a battle of former Tri-County League foes. Athol also hosts Smith Voke at 7 in a third area game.
While pride is on the line in those three contests, a trip to the western Mass. championship is up for grabs in the two playoff games and both figure to be highly competitive.
Here’s a look at the two postseason tilts:
No. 3 Hoosac Valley (5-2) at No. 2 Turners Falls (7-1)
Two teams that have trended in the right direction after early losses meet tonight in Turners Falls.
Defending WMass Division 8 champion Hoosac Valley began the season 1-2 overall, beating Mt. Greylock 14-12 in the opener before losing to Chicopee Comp (7-6) and South Hadley (36-22). After the loss to the Tigers, Hoosac coach Dayne Poirot made a move at quarterback, swapping out Casey Meczywor for Justin Meczywor, and since that time the Hurricanes have not lost, winning games against Taconic, Chicopee, Pittsfield and Commerce.
Those four wins have come in impressive fashion, as the Hurricanes defense pitched two shutouts in that span and allowed just 38 points — 32 of which came against Pittsfield. In last week’s 32-0 destruction of Commerce, Hoosac allowed the Raiders just one yard of offense.
“We are going to have to perform well in all aspects of the game,” Turners coach Chris Lapointe said. “We won’t be able to just run the ball at them, or throw the ball at them. You can’t get into a North-South battle with them. They are very aggressive and have some very good athletes.”
Turners counters with the top defense in the Intercounty League North Division this season. The Thunder have given up some points of late, allowing 70 points in the past three games, but the Turners offense scored 109 in that span to win all three games.
“They have big, strong kids up front, so we have to do what we do well,” Lapointe said of his defense. “Our line has to come off quick and do their assignments or else it could be a long day.”
Unlike the Turners Falls offense, which can get it done through the air and on the ground, the Hoosac offense is much more one-dimensional, albeit because of how well the running game has worked for the ’Canes. Dominic Acquista leads an experienced offensive line that has blocked well for a stable of backs. Junior Liam Feeley is a major contributor as is senior Joe Degere. The aforementioned Casey Meczywor is another contributor in the run game.
“It’s not just one guy, they’ve got three guys. They’ve got great size and run the football well,” Lapointe said.
The Turners offense will be led onto the field by senior quarterback Kyle Dodge who has been the top passer in the area this season, completing exactly half his attempts (54-of-108) this season for 842 yards. He has thrown 12 touchdowns against just six interceptions. Andy Craver (383 yards) and Jaden Whiting (297) lead the stable of receivers, but Tyler Lavin and Jake Wallace are also threats.
Wyatt Keith has made his one-year with the Powertown a memorable one, as he is on pace to become only the second area back to ever eclipse 2,000 yards in a season. The Pioneer student enters the night with 1,569 yards on the season with 19 touchdowns.
For many of the players, this game will mark their first playoff game as Turners Falls missed the postseason last fall for the first time since the statewide playoffs went into effect in 2013.
“I think they’ve dealt with it accordingly, we had a good week of practice,” Lapointe said. “They wanted to play a meaningful game, and they’ve got that chance. Now, they want to take that next step.”
The winner will face the winner of No. 1 Lee and No. 4 Ware in next weekend’s championship game.
No. 3 Frontier (5-3) at No. 2 South Hadley (6-2), 7
No, you are not experiencing deja vu.
Tonight’s WMass Division 7 football semifinal is a rematch of a game played this week one year ago as Frontier and South Hadley meet for the right to likely play top-seeded Wahconah in next week’s championship game.
The site of the game is far from the only difference.
Last year’s game took place in South Deerfield and the Red Hawks pulled out a 28-21 victory to make their first trip to the WMass finals since the beginning of the statewide playoff went into effect in 2013. Last year’s Frontier team had several seniors, including running backs Aaron Landry and Stephen Worthley, as well as four senior offensive linemen, which makes this year’s return trip to the postseason even more impressive.
“We are doing it this year with a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and a really good nucleus of juniors,” Frontier coach Don Gordon said. “The kids have really stepped up.”
This year’s game could come down to whichever team can overcome injuries. South Hadley lost their top playmaker one week ago when do-all athlete Liam Dawson broke his collarbone. Dawson lined up primarily as a running back but was also the team’s kick-returner and was known to take snaps at quarterback, much the way that Frontier’s Garrett DeForest has done. Even with his loss, the team can turn to its duo of Hunters — quarterback Hunter Borowski and running back Hunter Carey. Both players can run the ball, and Carey put up over 300 all-purpose yards after Dawson went down in last week’s 46-20 win over Chicopee.
“We have to stop the run,” Gordon said. “We are going to load the box and make them put it up in the air and see what happens.”
Frontier has been dealing with the injury bug of late and while Gordon would not comment on who is in and out, he did say he may be looking toward his bench for help.
“We are a little thin,” he admitted. “Our gameplan is to get Garrett (DeForest) and Matt (Hildreth) the ball. We are throwing some wrinkles in there. It’s all hands on deck.”
After getting held to less than 50 yards in back-to-back weeks, DeForest got back on track in Frontier’s win over Athol last week with 263 yards on the ground. That put him over the 1,000-yard mark on the season with 1,054, and he has also scored 17 touchdowns. Senior quarterback Hildreth can also get the job done both on the ground and through the air when called upon, which he has been more frequently of late. The offensive line, which includes a right side of sophomores Jacob Bryant and Jackie Phong, as well as senior Nate Austin and junior Dylan Apanell have helped lead the charge up front.
“The line has to get the job done,” Gordon said.
No matter what happens, Frontier continues to show it is a seasonal competitor in the Division 7 field as it is now playing in its fifth straight tournament.