ATHOL — The Frontier Regional football team scored on every possession en route to a 60-26 rout of Athol, Friday night.
Garrett DeForest ran wild for the Red Hawks with 263 yards on 15 carries and five touchdowns. The game had playoff seeding implications for Frontier.
“Wanted to come out with a W tonight,” DeForest said. “Just thinking of how important it is to the rest of the season. I just put my head down and kept running, wanting to put points in the board. If we lost we probably would have had the four seed.”
Frontier implemented some new looks for the game including option plays.
“I didn’t know what team was going to show up tonight,” Frontier coach Don Gordon said. “But we came through and executed. Scoring on every possession is a good thing. This will give playoff opponents something else to worry about.”
DeForest’s longest run of the night was a 75-yard run in the third quarter, while his longest touchdown was a 47-yarder in the fourth.
Athol (2-6) moved the ball in the first half to stay with Frontier, but the defense simply could not get any stops against Frontier’s rushing attack.
Athol quarterback Caleb Cox threw a 41-yard touchdown to Joey Gray for Athol’s longest play of the night.
“We had a couple kids out,” Athol coach Bill LaRose said. “We moved the ball in the first half. I thought it might be a little closer than that. We have two freshman (Cox and Gray) connecting on pass plays more than I have ever had. We just couldn’t stop their offense.”
Cox connected with Gray four times for 99 yards.
The first half featured eight touchdowns.
DeForest scored first for Frontier on a 6-yard rushing touchdown.
Keegan Lutz followed for Athol with a 26-yard rushing touchdown to make it 6-6. Matt Hildreth scored on a 1-yard keeper for the Red Hawks to make it 12-6 at the end of the first quarter.
DeForest added three more touchdowns in the second quarter; scoring twice on the ground and another on a 39-yard shovel pass from Hildreth.
For Athol, Dylan Castine scored on an 11-yard rushing touchdown, while Cox tossed a 39-yard touchdown to Gray.
The score was 36-20 at halftime.
Josh Semaski scored a 5-yard touchdown in the third quarter and added another in the fourth. In between was DeForest’s 47-yard touchdown.
Frontier 60, Athol 26
|
Frontier |
12 |
24 |
8 |
16 |
— |
60 |
|
Athol |
6 |
14 |
0 |
6 |
— |
26 |
First quarter
F – Garrett DeForest 6 rush (rush failed) 8:26
A – Keegan Lutz 26 rush (pass failed) 5:05
F – Matt Hildreth 1 rush (pass failed) 2:12
Second quarter
F – DeForest 26 rush (Josh Semaski rush) 9:27
A – Dylan Castine 11 rush (pass failed) 5:57
F – Hildreth 39 pass to DeForest (Semaski rush) 3:22
A – Caleb Cox 41 pass to Joe Gray 1:23
F – DeForest 10 rush (Hildreth pass to DeForest) :30
Third quarter
F – Semaski 5 rush (Hildreth rush) 3:59
Fourth quarter
F – DeForest 47 rush (Semaski rush) 9:08
F – Semaski 5 rush (Dan Deimand rush) 3:51
A –Tim Casavecchia 10 pass to Jacob Smith (pass failed) 0:07
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING— Frontier – DeForest 15-263; Semaski 8-64; Hildreth 3-29; Alec Kirkendall 4-29; Ben Lizotte 1-13; Athol – Lutz 11-80; Mason Barrieau 10-52; Caleb Cox 1-7; Riley Paine 1-5; Castine 5-25; Smith 3-11;
PASSING— Frontier Matt Hildreth 1-2-39-1; Athol – Caleb Cox 7-14-125-1; Riley Paine 2-6-25; Tim Casavecchia 1-1-10-1
RECEIVING— Frontier – DeForest 1-39; Athol – Barrieau 1-8; Gray 4-99; Castine 1-17; Lutz 2-14; Davy Arias 1-20
