ORANGE — The Mahar offense found its rhythm on Friday against Frontier.
Senators quarterback Noaha Chabot tossed three touchdown passes — all three to Jake Tenney — as Mahar claimed a 20-8 victory at the Woodward Complex.
“Our charge for them this week was to match their intensity,” Mahar coach Jim Woodward said. “Frontier is always going 100 miles an hour. We watched them play [Franklin] Tech last week and they never let up and scored twice in the fourth [quarter]. We matched them and they did what we asked of them.”
Tenney stole the show for Mahar, finishing the game with 129 yards on the ground and adding 109 receiving yards to give him a total of 238 in addition to the three touchdowns.
“He’s a player,” Woodward said. “He’s very good. He doesn’t make mistakes. When he fumbled, I knew it killed him. Some of those catches he made were incredible.”
Following a Red Hawk fumble on the first possession — which was recovered by Tenney — the Senators drove down and Chabot connected with Tenney for a 16-yard touchdown pass. Chabot found Eli Spencer for the two-point conversion to make it an 8-0 game.
The Mahar lead didn’t last long. On the ensuing kickoff, Frontier’s Jake Dodge bobbled the initial handle, turned upfield and beat everyone down the right sideline for a 90-yard touchdown. Iain Spearance ran in the two-point try to even the game 8-8 with 5:37 to go in the first quarter.
That score held until the 2:25 mark of the second quarter, when Chabot connected with Tenney deep over the middle. The senior used his speed to beat the pack to the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown that put the Senators up 14-8. The two-point try failed.
Mahar got the ball to start the second half and went on a 13-play drive that brought it to the Frontier 5, but a Tenney fumble gave possession back to the Red Hawks.
Despite the turnover, the drive took up nearly eight minutes on the game clock and pinned Frontier against its goal line, where it punted three plays later.
The Senators were able to control possession for the majority of the second half. Frontier ran just 12 plays on offense on three drives, two of the possessions resulting in punts.
“We tried making adjustments at halftime but it didn’t work out,” Frontier coach Scott Dredge said. “We didn’t have a chance to get going because they controlled the clock in the second half which was frustrating. We didn’t have an opportunity to get a rhythm.”
Following Frontier’s second punt of the second half, the Senators took over at their own 25 with 9:05 left on the clock.
They went on another clock killing drive, taking six minutes off the clock on 10 plays and capping it off with a touchdown.
Chabot connected with Tenney over the middle on a third-and-eight from the Frontier 23. Tenney extended the play by tipping the ball to himself, corralling the catch, turning up and beating Frontier defenders to the pylon to put Mahar up 20-8 with 3:14 to play.
Four straight incompletions for the Red Hawks sealed the Senator win on the ensuing possession.
While Mahar moved the ball on the ground, Frontier struggled to get anything going running the ball. Red Hawks running back Josh Semaski was held to 21 yards rushing.
“They completely outplayed us up front,” Dredge said. “They were right in our gaps and we didn’t pick them up. They outplayed us.”
Hampshire 56, Southwick 46 – Justin Forest’s big night lifted the Raiders to a Friday night win.
Forest scored 26 points, including 18 in the first half, and Hampshire pulled away late for a 56-46 win over Southwick in Westhampton.
Forest drained a trio of 3-pointers in his big first half, as Hampshire led 34-22 at intermission. It was 38-32 entering the fourth quarter.
Dylan Rohan went for 17 points in the victory for Hampshire. Jamal Rodriguez added five.