PITTSFIELD — With roughly nine minutes remaining in Saturday’s game, Northampton faced a fourth-and-12 situation from Pittsfield’s 18-yard line. Up by five and looking to ice the game, Blue Devils quarterback Tom Jacques rolled out to the left and found Jake Brittain in the corner of the end zone for six to squash Pittsfield’s comeback hopes. Northampton’s air attack was the story of the game as the Blue Devils topped Pittsfield 41-22 at Gene Dellea Field.
The game featured two high-powered offenses. However, the two displayed different ways to put points on the board. Pittsfield (0-2) won the toss and chose to receive. On the first play from scrimmage, Emmanuel Nda broke a tackle and went 64 yards for the touchdown. Quarterback Patrick Rindfuss crossed the goal line on the two-point try to give Pittsfield a 8-0 lead.
“Nda has the opportunity to take it [to the house] every time he touches the ball,” coach Brian Jezewski said. “We have a lot of scoring weapons all over the field.”
The Blue Devils clapped back with a 40-yard strike from Jacques to Sam Walker for six, cutting the General lead to two. Northampton’s quarterback finished with 268 yards passing and four touchdowns.
“If Tom is on target with his aim with those wide receivers, we’ll take what the coverages give us,” Northampton coach Joe Kocot said. “The key is that guys can’t get greedy. We aren’t calling touchdowns for players.”
For Pittsfield, its second drive was much like its first. Nda went 29 yards for his second touchdown of the first quarter, pushing Pittsfield’s lead to 16-6. The Pittsfield junior finished with 177 yards on 18 carries.
Again, it was Northampton’s passing game that answered. Jacques connected with Brittain (141 yards receiving) for an 11-yard touchdown and Jake Delisle added the extra point to make it 16-13.
Both quarterbacks ran in touchdowns from within the 5 before the half as the Generals took a 22-20 lead into the locker room.
The Pittsfield ground game seemed to run out of gas in the second half as the Generals were held scoreless, yet the Northampton air assault continued. After completing a 40-yard pass to Brittain on third-and-30, Jacques sent a ball down the left sideline into the arms of Brittain for a 44-yard touchdown. Delisle’s extra point was good and the Blue Devils claimed their first lead at 27-22.
“We got beat on the big play defensively and offensively we weren’t making things happen,” Jezewski said. “You can’t win when you’re only getting three possessions in the second half.”
Throughout the second half, Northampton coughed up a handful of balls and the Generals landed on two of them. However, it wasn’t until late in the fourth while trailing 34-22 when the Blue Devils put them away.
Brattain added to his impressive stat line as the Generals found themselves backed near their own end zone with less than a minute remaining in the game. The Northampton senior jumped a curl route and took it back 20 yards the other way for six.
“The goal is to stay humble, learn from the mistakes and get better,” Kocot said. “We’re 2-0, but every week is a challenge. We have East Longmeadow and Wahconah coming up after two tough games to begin the season. It is a tough schedule, but knock on wood we come out of it unscathed injury-wise.”
Northampton 41, Pittsfield 22
|
Northampton |
6 |
14 |
7 |
14 |
—41 |
|
Pittsfield |
16 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
—22 |
First quarter
P — Emmanuel Nda 64 run (Patrick Rindfuss run), 11:48.
NH — Sam Walker 40 pass from Tom Jacques (run failed), 6:35.
P — Nda 29 run (Sincere Moorer pass from Rindfuss), 1:29.
Second quarter
NH — Jake Brittain 11 pass from Jacques (Jake Delisle kick), 5:23.
P — Rindfuss 3 run (run failed), 4:05.
NH — Jacques 2 run (Delisle kick), 1:26.
Third quarter NH — Brittain 44 pass from Jacques (Delisle kick), 6:04.
Fourth quarter
NH — Brittain 18 pass from Jacques (Delisle kick), 9:28.
NH — Brittain 20 interception (Delisle kick), 0:41.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Northampton–Brett Holden 18-63; Jacques 6-39; Braeden Tudryn 9-26; Kavan Powers 1-5. Pittsfield-Rindfuss 6-24; Nda 18-177; Sincere Moorer 2-12.
PASSING—Northampton–Jacques 18-29-268. Pittsfield–Rindfuss 8-20-81.
RECEIVING—Northampton–Holden 5-21; Sam Walker 2-47; Jake Delisle 1-7; Brittain 5-141. Pittsfield- Sam Taylor 3-36; Louis Rhodes 2-31; Nda 1-2, Moorer 2-12.