GREAT BARRINGTON — Alex Tilton saw it coming.
Monument Mountain ran pass plays toward the sideline in the first half on Friday night that gashed Easthampton’s defense.
Late in the third quarter, the Spartans ran the same play again, but it ended with an incompletion. As Monument Mountain broke the huddle on the next play, the team lined up in the same looking formation.
“They lined up again and I thought they were going to do it again,” Tilton said.
Spartans quarterback Hunter DeGrenier dropped back and looked to his right. He unleashed a pass toward the sideline, but it was tipped by Easthampton’s Jacob Neumann.
Tilton got under the ball and caught it. He ran the interception back 16 yards for a touchdown to put Easthampton ahead by two scores with 3:46 to go in the third quarter.
The play gave the Eagles the push it needed. Easthampton went on to defeat Monument Mountain, 41-18, at Monument Mountain High School.
The Eagles outscored the Spartans 24-6 in the second half, but played shaky the first two quarters. The team picked up delay of game and illegal formation penalties on multiple extra point attempts and turned the ball over.
“We weren’t doing our job,” Neumann said. “We weren’t playing Easthampton football. We got it together in the second half, but in the first half that just wasn’t us playing football out there. I don’t even know what team was out there.”
Although the Eagles played sloppy in the first half, Neumann did what he could to keep the team afloat. He broke for a 50-yard touchdown with 9:35 to go in the first quarter on Easthampton’s first drive to put the Eagles ahead.
Monument Mountain’s Reece Mullen rushed for a 43-yard touchdown on the following drive. Later in the quarter, the Spartans’ Nick Henderson ran for a 53-yard touchdown to put Monument Mountain ahead, 12-6. The Eagles struck back with a 6-yard touchdown run from Neumann. A 27-yard run from Marcus O’Meally got Easthampton deep into Spartans territory on the drive.
The Eagles opened the scoring in the second half with a 1-yard touchdown run from Neumann, his third of the game, to put Easthampton ahead, 18-12.
“The line just did their job,” Neumann said on his performance. “They made the holes and created openings. Our wingbacks were blocking too. It was all the line today.”
The Eagles secured a two-score cushion with a 28-yard touchdown run from Bennett Kelly with 8:34 to go in the third quarter to go ahead, 26-12.
Kelly ran for 128 yards on 13 attempts and finished with one touchdown.
“I knew what we were going to get out of (Bennett),” Easthampton coach Matt Bean said. “He didn’t play the last few years, but came back, so I knew what I had in him. I knew as the season went along he would get stronger and stronger, and that is exactly what’s happened. Alex Tilton is in the same boat.”
The Spartans struck back quickly with a 80-yard kick return for a touchdown from Ben Shannon on the ensuing kick. Tilton’s interception return put the Eagles back ahead by two scores later in the quarter.
Both defenses played well and kept both teams at bay in the fourth quarter, but then came a blocked punt from Easthampton.
Kelly was on the field next to teammate Keith Cudworth when the Eagles blocked the punt.
“I told Keith, ‘If this guy takes me, you’re going to block it,’” Kelly said.
The blocker took on Kelly and, sure enough, Cudworth blocked the punt.
“I heard Alex (Tilton) yell ‘Grab the ball!’” Kelly said. “I said ‘OK’ and jumped on it.”
Kelly’s touchdown put the Eagles up 41-18. The Eagles held Monument Mountain to a scoreless fourth quarter.
With two games to go in the regular season against Athol and Mahar, the Eagles feel like they have made progress throughout the season, but there is still work to be done.
“We are doing good. We are getting better,” Bean said. “There are still things to correct. We are a junior-heavy team. We are doing things that we need to correct, but I think we are in good shape.”
Easthampton 41,
Monument Mountain 18
|
Easthampton |
12 |
6 |
16 |
7 |
—41 |
|
Monument Mountain |
12 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
—18 |
First quarter
E—Jacob Neumann 50 run (run failed), 9:35.
MM—Reece Mullen 43 run (run failed), 7:40
MM—Nick Henderson 53 run (run failed), 4:05
E—Neumann 7 run (pass failed), 0:48
Second quarter
E—Neumann 1 run (run failed), 4:33.
Third quarter
E—Bennett Kelly 28 run (Neumann run), 8:34.
MM—Ben Shannon 80 kick return (kick failed), 8:18
E—Alex Tilton 16 interception (Neumann run), 3:46
Fourth quarter
E—Kelly 11 blocked punt (Keith Cudworth kick), 8:50.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Easthampton–Fred Murray 3-3, Kelly 13-128, Neumann 9-100, Marcus O’Meally 7-73, Tilton 1-7, Liam Burke 1-4, Cudworth 1-21. Monument Mountain–Mullen 7-53, Hunter DeGrenier 4-(-9), Jack O’Brien 9-12, Nick Henderson 5-130
PASSING—Easthampton–Murray 1-3-21-1, Burke 0-1-0-0. South Hadley–DeGrenier 4-6-1-20
RECEIVING—Easthampton–O’Meally 1-21. Monument Mountain-Henderson 2-9, O’Brien 2-21