NORTH ADAMS — Racking up 300 yards of offense on the ground proved to be a winning formula for Drury en route to a 50-22 win over Athol in season-opening football action on Saturday.
“I tell ya what, they were big and I thought our offensive line responded,” said Drury head coach Al Marceau. “We were opening up a lot of holes and we didn’t do anything fancy. It was all between the tackles because you could see they were ready for the sweep. I was happy with the offensive line… We actually called some audibles today, and they got them right, which for the first game of the season… I was happy about that.”
Louis Guillotte was the problem for Athol and the answer to most issues for Drury. The senior running back rushed for 164 yards on the ground, two two-point conversions and scored four rushing touchdowns.
“They’re a good football team. We knew they were a good football team, this was a learning experience for us,” said Athol head coach Josh Talbot after the game. “We had 50 kids but 44 of them were brand new, hadn’t really played any meaningful football, if any. We had a pretty good preseason, we had a couple injuries this week and quite frankly, we’re not there yet.”
Guillotte took the second play of the second quarter up the middle and went seemingly untouched in a straight line for a 34-yard touchdown run to make it 28-0. On the ensuing conversion attempt, he took the handoff right side and leveled a defender on his way into the endzone.
An interception with seconds left in the first half had given Drury the opportunity to run a few plays before the second quarter ended. But up 38-6, they elected to take a knee at the 6-yard line. Athol’s Aidan Melanson scored the visitors’ lone TD in the first half on a 1-yard run in the second quarter.
On the very first play of the third quarter, Guillotte showed why good field position wasn’t always necessary. The tailback took the handoff up the middle, broke a tackle, cut left, stiff-armed an Athol defender and turned on the afterburners, racing 65-yards for a touchdown.
If that wasn’t enough, later on in the game, Drury’s defense forced a punt from the Athol 25-yard line. It arced high but not too far and Guillotte caught it at Drury’s 48-yard line. Picking up a couple of blocks, he found a lane, worked to the left side of the field and outran the defense to the front left corner of the endzone for a 52-yard punt return touchdown. It was his fifth touchdown of the day.
There were two amazing throws and catches by the Bears. Quarterback Logan Cormier dropped back and uncorked a bomb that went 40 yards in the air into the waiting arms of Shea Brennan, who beat his man deep before turning on the gas to complete an 80-yard touchdown reception.
A few minutes later, Melanson was back at signal caller and he fired a rocket that landed in the hands of the outstretched arms of Cormier, who had beaten his man off the line and took off for a 74-yard touchdown reception.
For a young Athol team with a new coaching staff, the lumps taken were not entirely unexpected, especially against a veteran squad like Drury.
“This is a process,” Talbot said. “We knew what we were getting into. It was a reality check. It was a good reminder that we have a lot of things to get better at. But I think we are going to put the work in to get better.”