BELCHERTOWN — Following his injury last Friday against Amherst Regional, few, including Belchertown coach Chris Bourget, expected senior quarterback Jackson Leduc to play Friday night.
But play he did as the game-time decision quarterback threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns as the Orioles beat Mohawk Trail, 30-26, in nonplayoff action.
“I’m excited for our seniors tonight,” said Bourget. “We had a lot of seniors step their game up and play tremendous tonight and make plays all over the field. It’s a special night for them.”
Leduc, who suffered a foot injury, and senior running back Cam Cass, who suffered an upper-body injury in practice this week, both made impacts on offense despite being last-minute decisions. The duo combined for all four touchdowns by the Orioles.
“Both of them we didn’t think would play tonight and they both stepped up for us,” said Bourget. “Everybody stepped up tonight.”
The Orioles struck on the first drive, with Leduc finding fellow senior Zach Mercier in the end zone from 27 yards out. The drive was aided by a 41-yard run by Cass two plays earlier.
Leduc found senior receiver Cam Supple on the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with 9:35 left in the quarter.
Things evened out not long after as Mohawk running back Johnny Herbert went 70 yards on four plays, capping off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. Herbert ran in the 2-point conversion as the Warriors drew even at 8-8 with 8:00 left in the first quarter.
A back-and-forth battle emerged, with Leduc relying on passes to Mercier and senior Clayton Daskam, and runs by Cass, while the Warriors went heavy on the ground through Herbert, Jordan Grenier and Mason Beagini.
The Warriors pushed through before the end of the quarter, as Grenier took it in from 4 yards. Mohawk failed on the conversion, but held a 14-8 lead with 1:20 left in the first quarter.
After trouble led the Orioles to a third-and-5 on their own 21 in the second quarter, a 36-yard pass to Mercier and 26-yard run by Cass set up a 14-yard touchdown pass to Daskam, which was the first of his career.
Leduc found Mercier for the conversion as the Orioles held a 16-14 lead entering halftime.
Grenier gave Mohawk the lead, 20-16, with 8:07 left in the fourth with a 3-yard TD run.
After two sacks on Leduc, followed by an incompletion, Belchertown was forced to punt, but the Orioles recovered a fumble by quarterback Cam Hoff. Cass ran it in two plays later and Leduc found Mercier on the two-point attempt as Belchertown led 24-20 with 5:23 left.
The Warriors struck right back, however, as a 5-yard touchdown run by Grenier made it 26-24 with 41 seconds remaining.
The Orioles answered.
A 57-yard pass saw Supple go down just a yard out of the end zone on the next drive. Leduc gave it to Cass and the senior ran it in from the 1 with nine seconds left to play.