TURNERS FALLS — Garrett Dredge dominated in the run game in the Frontier football team’s 36-12 win against Franklin Tech on Friday.
Dredge put together two lengthy rushing scores, including the Redhawks’ first play from the line of scrimmage, in Frontier’s second victory of the 2025 season.
“We got some tough guys up front and we certainly got some tough runners,” Redhawks head coach Scott Dredge said. “Very proud of Garrett. He’s a hard-nosed kid and he runs angry. I think that’s the attitude we’re going to need to carry us through the season. It’s no secret what we do. We are a run-first team and I’m happy to see it all clicking tonight.”
Dredge put the visitors in front with a 58-yard gallop on Frontier’s opening drive. A successful 2-point conversion made it 8-0 Redhawks as Dredge’s score stunned the Eagles’ faithful.
However, Tech answered right back with an 89-yard kick return that put the ball in prime scoring position on the 1-yard line. Maxon Brunette then punched it in over the goal line for the Eagles with 11 minutes, 27 seconds on the clock, as both teams found each end zone less than a minute into the game.
The scoring slowed in proceeding possessions, but the pendulum swung back in favor of Frontier on a 29-yard receiving score from tight end Jaxon Spearance later in the first quarter. Quarterback Konnor James flicked it to a wide-open Spearance, who corralled the ball in the end zone and pushed the Redhawks’ lead to 16-6.
The game’s next touchdown volleyed back to Tech as Nathan Sabolevski scored on a 5-yard rush. The Eagles couldn’t add any extra points, but still shrunk Frontiers lead down to four points with a 16-12 score with 9:13 left in the first half.
That wound up being the final points on the board for Tech as the Redhawks tallied the final three touchdowns of the matchup, starting with Dredge’s second of the evening about a minute after the hosts’ rushing TD.
“They outplayed us in every aspect of the game,” Eagles head coach Joe Gamache said. “They came ready to play tonight, we did not. They earned it.”
Dredge’s second score nearly measured out to the exact same distance as his first as the senior running back pushed Frontier’s lead up to 22-12 on a 55-yard charge.
The Redhawks tacked on another TD before the half was over as James and Spearance connected again for a pass-catch combo with less than 10 seconds left. This touchdown came in as a 17-yard score and ballooned Frontier’s advantage up to 28-12.
A 3-yard QB sneak from James with 2:23 to go in the third quarter put the game away for the Redhawks and brought the score to its final mark of 36-12.
“Franklin Tech beat us pretty good last year, embarrassed us on our field, because they had a very good football team,” Scott Dredge said. “We wanted to also show for us and the rest of our games that we could compete as well.”
Tech took last season’s showdown by a score of 36-7.
Frontier’s defense is also nothing to sneeze at either as it has allowed just 18 points in its first two games. Dredge credited his team’s aggressive mindset as the reason for its suffocating play style.
“[Tech] has got a very good running back themselves, and we knew he was the guy, he’s tough to stop,” Dredge said. “We knew that was coming too and they just got good athletes and we had to make sure we were in the right place.”
The Eagles (1-1) will look to regroup after momentum from their sparkling 48-0 win against McCann Tech during Week 1 evaporated in the defeat to the Redhawks.
“They had way more energy, our kids came out flat,” Gamache said. “We didn’t have a great week of preparation. I think it’s a learning opportunity for our guys. It’s a Week 2 game, it’s not the Super Bowl, so we got a lot of football ahead of us and we’re going to focus on improving.”
Tech will host Pathfinder next Thursday, while Frontier will welcome Greenfield next Friday.
Both games are set to start 7 p.m.
