HOLYOKE — The Holyoke football team put on a show in its home opener, scoring at will en route to a 45-6 win over Putnam at John F. Gilligan Field.
“They were very hungry,” Holyoke coach Joe Dutsar said. “We put 27 (points) up on the board (in a loss) against Northampton last week. We left a lot of points on the field and they took that personally this week in practice.”
Holyoke (2-1) scored a touchdown on its first six possessions. In the first half, the Purple Knights scored each time they touched the ball.
Holyoke began its first drive at the 22-yard line after the defense recovered a fumble. Running back William Dumoulin rushed the ball 22 yards for the touchdown on just the first play.
The defense played just as well as the offense and forced a punt on Putnam’s second possession. The punt was poorly kicked and pushed even further after a facemask penalty. Holyoke started the second possession on the 12-yard line. From there, quarterback Gabriel Fernandez ran it 12 yards for the score.
On the third drive, Fernandez connected with Aiden Consedine for a 6-yard touchdown with just 2:49 left in the half.
Putnam scored its only points on the next possession as Dakota Scranton connected with Leonard Naylor for the 6-yard touchdown.
The Purple Knights had just 17 seconds left in the half when they took possession on their 38-yard line. From there, Fernandez connected with Scott Leary for 41 yards. Fernandez then found Dumoulin for 16 yards. Holyoke lined up to take a field goal but two consecutive Putnam penalties placed the ball at the 8-yard line. The Purple Knights lined up for the field goal but faked it, and Consedine found Jael Cabrera for the touchdown with no time remaining to it 33-6 at halftime.
Holyoke opened the second half with a Fernandez 10-yard rushing touchdown.
A pick-six with 5:34 left in the third brought the score to 45-6.
Fernandez was 10 of 12 passing for 234 yards and a touchdown. Using his legs, he ran the ball four times for 31 yards and two touchdowns.
“Gabe’s turned into quite a field general,” Dutsar said. “He’s like a second coach out there. When he’s on offense he sees things that we’re not seeing because we’re not seeing the end zone. He’s got a good head on his shoulders, he reads defenses well, he throws the ball extremely well and if we’re going to have success down the road against better teams he’s going to have to keep improving as we go.”
Dumoulin rushed 17 times for 107 yards and two touchdowns. He even caught a ball for 16 yards. He only had 17 yards rushing last week against Northampton so something was clearly different for the running back.
“Billy last week was kind of hesitant with his gears,” Dutsar said. “Tonight, he hit the hole, switched the gear, a little burst here and he wasn’t afraid to get the tough yardage. He was sick yesterday. He was sick Wednesday and did not practice. Wednesday’s a big day for us because it’s the last day we go hard in practice. Billy has really stepped up his game and really stepped up for the team.”
Holyoke played without fear on offense. With a defense that had two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, forced and recovered a fumble and allowed six points, the offense had the confidence of the coaching staff to go out there and take chances.
“We gambled a little bit on fourth-down calls and we were fortunate to come out on the positive end of those calls,” Dutsar said. “Making those was big because that gave our offense confidence that they could do those things and it showed them that we have confidence in them.”