BELCHERTOWN – For one team, Friday night’s football game was a wakeup call. For the other, it was a statement win.
Easthampton rolled into Belchertown and left with a shutout victory, earning a 28-0 win and stunning the home crowd. Quarterback Shea Healy was electric, throwing four touchdown passes, and BB Tauscher was lights-out all evening, scoring two touchdowns, including a 68-yard reception in the first quarter to kick off the scoring.
“(I think) this game humbled them up. I think they were – I’m not gonna say big headed, but you could tell that being 3-1 got a little to their heads,” Belchertown head coach Dan McCarthy said. “I think our effort wasn’t there. We had a rough week at practice.”
The first half was all Easthampton after a couple early miscues. Tauscher got the Eagles on the board with 4:52 left in the first quarter, and also ended the first quarter with an impressive 35 yard rush off a fake punt play.
“Our coach, he says he trusts me – if I see something there, then I can take it away. I saw the left side was wide open, so I used my agility and my speed to get us a big play,” Tauscher said.
“BB has been one of the fastest kids on the field since he’s been a freshman,” Healy added. “I don’t really know anyone that can take this man down one-on-one in the open field.”
The Eagles struck again just 54 seconds into the second quarter when Healy connected with Angel Moody for a 35-yard touchdown and converted the two-point attempt to make it 14-0.
After a long Belchertown possession that couldn’t find the end zone, the Eagles finished off the first half with two touchdowns in two minutes. Healy and Tauscher teamed up again for a 10-yard touchdown throw with 2:40 left, and the Eagles defense stuffed the Belchertown offense on the next possession, allowing Easthampton to march back up the field with the clock ticking down.
Healy threw an 11-yard pass to a diving Moody, who just managed to snag the ball and keep his feet in bounds for a score to give the Eagles a commanding 28-0 lead going into halftime.
The win was a good step forward for Easthampton, which had a wakeup call of its own in a game against Monument Mountain earlier this season. The team went in with maybe a little too much confidence and couldn’t get its offense going, dropping the game 7-0.
“I feel like that Monument game, we took a little too lightly,” Healy said. “No matter what team we play now, every week we discuss and we talk about them – we’re never gonna take another team lightly. No matter how how much film we watch on them, we’re gonna play like we’re playing against Central… we’re going to go all out from the beginning.”
That was exactly the feeling that Belchertown had afterward – that maybe this was a game they took a ‘little too lightly.’ McCarthy and his staff were determined after the game to make sure that wouldn’t happen again moving forward.
“Easthampton gave it to us last year. Again, between Easthampton and a team like Lee, these two teams, they were marked on my schedule knowing they’re gonna be tough competition,” McCarthy said. “I think as a staff, we’re gonna go back, step up the effort in practice, get the kids rolling a little more. But we need the kids to do those non-talent things like effort and attitude.”
And while Easthampton was happy with the win, it wasn’t smooth sailing in the second half – the Eagles got dinged with penalties all night long, something they’ll need to clean up if they want to keep the momentum in their favor.
“Definitely something that we need to cut down on… those penalties honestly just shot us in the foot,” Healy said. “It brought (Belchertown) down to like the three yard line, two yard line and (we) held them to a stop somehow, but they shouldn’t even have gotten to that position. The only reason they got there was because of flags that were unnecessary.”