SOUTH HADLEY — Needing a stop late in the fourth quarter to preserve a victory against South Hadley, the Northampton football team’s defense got nasty.
On three straight plays, South Hadley quarterback Ryan Mooney couldn’t find open receivers and scrambled.
This led to sacks by Zac Brittain, a shared sack by Bryan DeJesus and Will O’Connor, and finally a sack by Devontay Edmonds to close out the 12-7 win for Northampton Friday night.
“Coach told us to just get to the ball,” DeJesus said. “We dug deep. This team has a lot of heart.”
Even after the win, a dark cloud circled the Northampton team in an injury to running back Nik Smith (12 carries, 57 yards), who went down in the third quarter.
“Looks like a separated shoulder,” Northampton coach Pat Sledzieski said. “We don’t know the severity of it. Definitely will be out a week or two. We will be limited in the running game.”
Smith was on the ground surrounded by trainers for several minutes.
After running wild in its first two games and scoring 86 points, Northampton’s offense ran into a stingy South Hadley defense and gained 147 yards of total offense.
“I was happy with everybody on our team,” South Hadley coach Scott Taylor said. “We played hard but that’s a good football team.”
Hamp’s defense did enough to stop South Hadley’s ground game. Northampton held South Hadley’s Teddy Doyle to 21 yards on eight carries. Ryan Mooney rushed for 43 yards on eight carries.
O’Connor added a sack earlier in the game for Hamp’s defense.
A couple big plays on offense was the difference for Northampton.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Hamp faced fourth-and-4 at South Hadley’s 25-yard line.
Quarterback Ryan Bredin took the snap and sailed a pass to wide receiver Andy Grygorcewicz. The receiver went horizontal, made the catch and maintained possession through a hard fall to South Hadley’s new turf at the 2-yard line.
“We called a fade for Andy,” Bredin said. “He had the inside open and I tossed it up to him. He made a great catch.”
Bredin scored on a 2-yard keeper on the next play to give Northampton its first lead of the game at 12-7.
Bredin also threw a 2-yard touchdown pass on fourth down in the second quarter to Elijah Davis (15 carries, 66 yards).
“We knew if we came out and executed we would come out with a win,” Bredin said. “They have a hostile crowd here. They are a good team but we pulled it out. It was nice.”
Mooney was effective throwing the ball, going 6-for-8 for 86 yards, including three connections to tight end Marcus Larrier for 62 of those yards.
South Hadley scored in the first quarter on an off-tackle sweep by Jason Fernandes to make it 7-0. It was Northampton’s first deficit on the season.
The Tigers dominated time of possession but drives ended up stalling.
There was a missed 32-yard field goal in the second quarter by the Tigers.
