EASTHAMPTON — David Helems motioned Camden Kelly from right to left across the Easthampton football punt formation, noting the Amherst Regional defender tracking him.
The Hurricanes burst through the left side of the Eagles’ line, and Ty Loper blocked Helems’ punt.
“That was just a blocking thing, so we switched it up after, and I was fine,” Helems said. “It didn’t bother me.”
Amherst scored its first touchdown three plays later on a 6-yard run by Jason Fernandes to tie the game with 6 minutes, 58 seconds remaining in the first quarter Friday.
Helems remembered the details of the play on Easthampton’s next drive.
Three plays after the kickoff, he punted but was run into, leaving Easthampton with a fourth-and-9 on Amherst’s side of the field.
The Eagles lined up to punt again and motioned Kelly across the formation. Instead of punting the ball after the snap, though, Helems rolled to the right and picked up 17 yards and a first down.
“The first one we do motion so we can see what the guy does. He follows him all the way over, so usually we take that,” Helems said.
Nick Tausenfreund found the end zone four plays later on a 25-yard delayed draw. It gave the Eagles the lead back with 43.3 seconds until halftime, and they didn’t relinquish it in a 26-18 win at White Brook Middle School.
The Eagles were supposed to kick the ball away to Amherst to start the second half, but coach Matt Bean concocted other plans. Leading 14-6 at the time, Bean called an onside kick.
Ben Landry deadened a kick that a host of Eagles fell on to regain possession.
“I saw the way they were lining up. Nothing’s ever a sure thing,” Bean said. “Onside’s always a big chance, but that didn’t seem like a big chance to us at the time.”
Easthampton drove the ball to the red zone, but couldn’t convert the touchdown after a Max Weir incompletion on fourth down gave the ball to the Hurricanes.
Amherst (3-4, 2-1 Intercounty North) gave the ball to Fernandes (nine carries, 28 yards) twice for 7 yards. Miles Foerster completed a long pass down the sideline to Will Budington on third down that was called back by holding. A second holding call pushed Amherst further back before Foerster was sacked for a 36-yard loss by Damien Diluzio.
Penalties “kill us. That was a big part of the game, also making mental mistakes,” Foerster said. “I made several toward the end of the game. The entire team making mental mistakes kills us.”
Defensive penalties kept Easthampton’s go-ahead drive alive. The Hurricanes committed five penalties in the game but all came at critical times.
“Easthampton’s a good enough team where if you have those penalties you can’t get away with them, and we continued with the penalties,” Amherst coach Chris Ehorn Jr. said. “It’s penalties that keep you out of the end zone, it’s penalties that keep the defense on the field, that’s the frustrating thing. I have to do a better job of running a practice that is more disciplined. That’s where it stems from.”
Back on fourth-and-forever after the 36-yard sack, Amherst punted from its end zone. The ball only carried out to the 13-yard line.
Tausenfreund (11 carries, 84 yards) took the ball into the end zone on the next play to put Easthampton (3-4, 3-0 Intercounty South) up 20-6.
Amherst started its next possession with a 10-yard run by Foerster. Budington finished it with a 55-yard scamper on the left side with 2:47 remaining in the third quarter. That brought Amherst within 20-12, the closest the Hurricanes had been since Easthampton’s opening drive.
The Eagles started the game with an eight-play march that culminated in a 6-yard run by Kelly and a 6-0 lead with 7:52 to go in the first quarter.
“From the beginning we had to play catch up,” Ehorn said. “You can’t let them score on the first drive of the game.”
Kelly also scored Easthampton’s last touchdown to put the game away.
He caught a pass on the 16-yard line outside the right side numbers. Weir executed a play-action fake and rolled to his right before delivering the ball. Kelly evaded four defenders immediately after making the reception before cutting left past a diving Fernandes. He sprinted toward the left corner of the end zone with Tajahn Joyner in pursuit. Kelly froze Joyner with a stutter step at the goal line and walked in for a 25-yard score with 9:14 left.
“In practice, we’ve done that play before and those guys usually come down and flood,” Kelly said. “I saw that guy (Joyner) coming, and I wasn’t going to outrun him because he had full steam. I usually just stop. I felt like we had to get that touchdown.”
They did.
Both teams traded punts on their next tow possessions.
Joyner returned Easthampton’s punt to the 1-yard line. Two plays later, Foerster plowed in for a 1-yard score with 4:57 left that made it 26-18.
The Eagles drove the ball to Amherst’s 20 on their next possession and faced fourth-and-1 with two minutes remaining. Easthampton turned to Tausenfreund, who picked up the first down and allowed his team to run out the clock for its third straight win.
“We had a very difficult out of league schedule, and we benefited for it,” Bean said.
Amherst lost for the first time since a 30-24 setback at Turners falls on Sept. 23, ending a three-game winning streak. The Hurricanes close out the regular season at home against Belchertown.
“I think this game, we just came in a little too cocky not thinking they’re going to be a challenge,” Foerster said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.