HOLYOKE — The Holyoke football team put up a great fight in the bitter cold Thursday evening, but Agawam spoiled the final tilt of the season with a late touchdown to secure a 22-18 victory at the Roberts Complex.
It was an exciting final game of the Fall II season for both squads. Holyoke’s Jael Cabrera, even with 10 mile per hour winds in his face, caught eight passes for 137 yards and three touchdowns.
Cabrera did all of Holyoke’s scoring, and was slotted to be the hero when his third touchdown, a 15-yard score, put the Purple Knights in the lead 18-14 with seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Agawam then drove down the field, wasting time off the clock as it marched toward the end zone. The Brownies scored a go-ahead touchdown with 54 seconds left on the clock, when QB Griffen Levesque found tight end Nicholas Burbank for a touchdown pass.
“Our guy just made a bad read on it,” said Holyoke head coach Joe Dutsar of the play.
Holyoke nearly had the game-winning pass on the final play of the game when Quinn Cauley threw a long ball to Scott Leary. Leary missed the ball by a finger’s length, sealing the game for Agawam.
Dutsar said he felt that the wind was one of the biggest factors in Thursday’s game.
“We couldn’t throw into it and we couldn’t kick into it,” said Dutsar. “That wind caused multiple turnovers and a couple misplays on the ball.”
Adding to the loss, William Dumoulin exited the game in the first half with what looked like an ankle injury. He did not return for the rest of the game.
Even with Dumoulin’s injury, Dutsar said he was happy that his team put up a fight in the second half.
“We fought tooth and nail this game,” said the head coach. “We took them down to the last play of the game. The objective was of course to keep them out of the end zone and we obviously didn’t do that.”
Penalties were abundant throughout Holyoke’s final game. Both teams combined for double-digit penalties, and several kept drives alive for Agawam.
“The offside penalty we got kept their drive alive,” said Dutsar of a play on Agawam’s final possession. “We also had a couple holding calls that didn’t go our way. It’s part of the game but you can’t win with penalties.”
Both punt units were metronomes. With the wind at their back, things went well. Against the wind, it was not so impressive. Holyoke did not have a punt go longer than 25 yards until the second half, and Agawam had a punt that went for a loss of five yards.
What Dutsar saw from his team this season impressed him, mostly due to the wide array of positions each player assumed.
“We had a lot of kids play different positions over the last four games. This was due to injuries or players being sick,” said Dutsar. “Depth really was our problem today as we had less players on the sideline.”
As Holyoke heads into the offseason, Dutsar had one thing to say when asked about his goal for the team.
“Learn how to lift weights,” he said. “They’ve got to lift weights and get stronger.”