AMHERST — A storm came to town on Friday night as the Amherst Regional football team beat Agawam, 42-13, in its season opener.
The Hurricanes came into the season with lofty expectations after a semifinal playoff exit last year. All of the hard work paid off in the first game as they came out and dominated on both sides of the ball.
“It’s great to start the season off with a win,” Amherst coach Chris Ehorn Jr. said. “It’s the first time we’ve done it, at least since I’ve become coach, that we started the season off with a win. That was very big for us. And then it gives us momentum into a game where we know East Longmeadow is good so we need that momentum.”
Amherst set the tone immediately, forcing a three-and-out from the Brownies and then getting a stop when they elected not to punt the ball. The Hurricanes were given great field position and drove the ball in as CJ Woodfine-Holmes ran in the touchdown.
“That was huge for us,” Ehorn said. “We thought they were going to punt and then they went for it — which is something that we kind of like to do — but us getting a short field was huge for us to start the game.”
The Hurricanes led throughout but slowed a bit on offense after losing some players to injury. The defense, however, responded as cornerback Darius Robinson had two interceptions, including one following an Amherst turnover. Robinson was all over the field on defense and his presence was felt in the secondary.
“He did a great job and he is somebody that I would say is a surprise player,” Ehorn said. “We didn’t know what we had in him before the season, we didn’t know what we had in him over the summer. The work he’s put in in our practices, he was able to earn that starting spot and he was huge tonight so (we’re) very happy.”
Joshua Vecchio, Dan Block and JJ Block were injured in the game and it created a lot of uncertainty for the running game in the second half. The offense had been thriving with the running game creating opportunities for the passing attack. As players were going down, the passing offense slumped a bit and it became difficult for quarterback J.B. Mills to complete passes to his receivers.
Mills, however, turned to his legs. In the third quarter, Mills had a pair of long runs that each produced touchdowns for the Hurricanes. Mills passed for two touchdowns — one to Woodfine-Holmes and another to Shane Robles — ran for a 36- and 72-yard touchdowns.
“We had a couple of running backs go down but our line did a great job of opening up holes,” Mills said. “I don’t know how our running backs do it ― make long runs like that all the time and then go play defense. It’s insane. It’s gassing out there.”