H.S. football: Second-half surge leads Franklin Tech past South Shore Tech, 26-22, in MVADA semis

TURNERS FALLS — The upcoming Thanksgiving morning football game is special in its own right, but now Franklin Tech can look forward to a tournament championship game it can now slot into its pre-Turkey Day schedule.

After giving up a pair of long second-quarter touchdown passes Friday night, the Eagles promptly flipped the game with 26 unanswered points and went on to a 26-22 home victory over South Shore Tech of Hanover in the MVADA Small School Tournament semifinals on Friday.

Brady Gancarz ran for 122 yards and two scores and caught a 66-yard TD pass from Mason Bassett to lead the Eagles (8-2), who possessed the football for more than 35 of the game’s 48 minutes and ran 64 plays from scrimmage to South Shore’s 38.

Still, Franklin Tech had to weather an impressive passing display from South Shore (5-5), which got three touchdown passes from James Aikey, two going to John Blackman. Their second connection with 3:47 left in the game, followed by Aikey’s two-point conversion run, pulled the Vikings to within 26-22. But Franklin Tech recovered the ensuing squib kickoff and maintained possession for the rest of the game, helped by two first downs and a face-mask penalty against South Shore.

“The first half, we didn’t execute well on either side. We did have that one momentum drive (before the half) where we were able to get a score,” said Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache. “In the second half, they really showed what they’re capable of. They played a little more fearless, a little more aggressive, and they rose to the occasion.”

The teams played a scoreless first quarter before South Shore struck twice in the span of a minute and 45 seconds. The Eagles failed on fourth down at the South Shore 43 and on the next snap, Aikey hit Dillon O’Brien down the right sideline for 57 yards and a score, putting the Vikings up 6-0 with 8:38 to go in the half.

Franklin Tech then went three-and-out and punted to the Vikings’ 48, where Aikey again needed just one snap to link up with Blackman for 52 yards and a second touchdown for the visitors. O’Brien ran in the two-pointer to make it 14-0 at the 6:53 mark.

From there, the Eagles consumed almost the rest of the half on a 71-yard drive, converting third-and-13 with a 30-yard middle screen from Bassett to Wyatt Whitman and another 18-yard completion from Bassett to Jaxon Silva. Whitman took a pitch around the right side for 13 yards and Tech’s first touchdown with 35.2 seconds on the clock, making it a 14-6 game at halftime.

South Shore punted on its opening third-quarter possession and Tech mounted a seven-play, 63-yard drive. Gancarz finished it off with a 22-yard run off left tackle, but the Eagles missed out on the two-point try to leave the score at 14-12.

Another punt by the Vikings set up the hosts at their own 38. After a 4-yard loss on first down, Bassett found Gancarz on a wheel route for 66 yards and the touchdown, Tech’s second in just 2:13, that put the Eagles ahead up for good, 18-14, with 6:08 remaining in the third.

“It’s a play that (assistant coach Shane) Parker kind of drew up and we’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks,” said Gamache. “That’s the first time we’ve executed it to perfection. If we were gonna pick a time, I guess that was the right time.”

Franklin Tech’s last scoring drive followed a fumble recovery by Cole Gamache at the South Shore 49 and the Eagles turned it into a 10-play march, capped by Gancarz’s 7-yard TD run and two-point conversion with 11:07 to play in the game.

The Vikings hit back with a fourth-and-7 conversion on which Aikey’s pass to William Traynor netted 26 yards, but South Shore made it as far as the Tech 21 before four straight incompletions. On its next series, South Shore got out of a fourth-and-26 hole with a 49-yard catch-and-run by O’Brien that put the ball at the Eagles’ 15. Two plays later, Aikey found Blackman with a 10-yard scoring toss, and Aikey ran in the two-pointer himself to make it 26-22 with 3:47 to go.

All that remained was for Franklin Tech to cover the ensuing onside kick and run out the clock, ending the game at the South Shore 19.

Whitman added 49 yards on the ground and Bassett was 7-of-14 passing for 147 yards for Tech. The Eagles finished with 311 total yards to South Shore’s 240, but the Tech defense limited the Vikings to only 13 rushing yards on 16 tries.

Aikey ended the night with a 9-of-22 showing for 227 yards, including two catches by O’Brien for 106 yards and three by Blackman for 65 yards.

“This is Year 25 for me. It’s not a knock to any of the guys who have been here before. But top to bottom, this is probably the most talented roster I’ve had here,” said Gamache. “It’s a special group. It’s great they’re going to have an opportunity to show how special they actually are.”

The Eagles advanced to the MVADA Small School Tournament championship against top-seeded Keefe Tech of Framingham, which thrashed Pathfinder 41-7 in Friday night’s other semifinal. The championship game will be played Nov. 21 at Beacon Bank Field at Foley Stadium in Worcester, with the game time still undetermined at press time.