EASTHAMPTON — The Greenfield football team had opportunities on Friday night against Easthampton to make momentum-shifting plays.
Then the team’s collective inexperience showed.
The Green Wave dropped a few passes, put the ball on the ground, and missed defensive assignments on key drives to let Easthampton get ahead in the first half. Greenfield made a run late in the fourth quarter, but it came too late as the Eagles snagged a 30-20 victory in an Intercounty League North contest at White Brook Middle School.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot and put the ball on the ground,” Greenfield coach Mike Kuchieski. “We had some things that just didn’t go our way. I can’t say the effort wasn’t there. We have a lot of young kids playing their first year of varsity football, those are the things you expect.”
Jake Sak, Shane Kilgour, and Bob Provost each scored a rushing touchdown for the Green Wave (1-2, 0-1).
Greenfield has a lot of new faces on both sides of the ball this season, especially on offense. That unit was put in a hole in the first half due to pre-snap penalties, and the defense struggled with missed tackles.
“A lot of missed tackles on defense,” Kuchieski said. “We have to go back to the drawing board with that, but again, this is the third game some of these guys have ever played. We had great effort.”
Easthampton’s Marcus O’Meally scored the game’s first touchdown when he bounced an inside run to the outside and ran 45 yards for a touchdown.
Greenfield committed two defensive face mask penalties in three plays on the following drive, but made a stand deep in its own end of the field to keep it a one possession game.
The Green Wave did a solid job of neutralizing standout running back Jacob Neumann by applying pressure with blitzes up the middle, but Neumann started to find his groove in the second quarter. He rushed for a 4-yard touchdown on Easthampton’s first drive of the period to extend the lead to 12-0.
Miscues continued to slow down Greenfield on offense. Back to back penalties (an illegal shift and delay of game) on the following drive put the team in a hole, but a 17-yard gain off a fake punt from Jared Hart kept the offense on the field.
The drive was capped by a 2-yard quarterback keeper from Jake Sak to make it 12-6 with 3:13 to go in the half.
But just as Greenfield started to gain some momentum, O’Meally broke for another long touchdown, this time for 65 yards, to put Easthampton back ahead by two possessions.
The Green Wave fumbled on their own 38-yard line on the following drive and put Easthampton in prime position to strike. The Eagles scored with a pass from Bennett Kelly to Alex Tilton to make it 24-6 before halftime.
“If we make a couple of tackles in the backfield that they scored a touchdown on … we might have had a shot to win the football game,” Kuchieski said. “The momentum changes. It gets deflated with young 14, 15, and 16-year old kids. When that happens, it’s tough to overcome.”
The Green Wave made a run in the second half with scores from Provost and Kilgour, but missed opportunities early in the game proved too much to overcome.
“(Easthampton) took it to us a bit,” Kuchieski said. “Hopefully we get better. We have the week off next week, rest up our bangs and bruises, and go from there.”
Greenfield is off until an Oct. 4 road trip to play Athol.