WARE – The Easthampton football team eagerly hopped off the bus and was ready to go for its season opener against Ware Friday night.
But the weather had other plans. A nasty mix of rain, wind, and lightning delayed the start of what was the Eagles’ first contest since the tragic off-season passing of former head coach Matt Bean by nearly two hours.
Bean, who coached Easthampton from 2015-2022, was honored with a lengthy moment of silence prior to kickoff.
“We’re going to talk about it all year,” new head coach Kyle Dragon said. “Play for yourselves, but honor Coach Bean. Put everything together and play for him, that’s really the way we want to do it.”
After a short window where the skies cleared up, both teams took the field at 8:40 p.m. for the opening kick of what was a scheduled 7 p.m. start. Occasional lightning strikes and flashes scattered the skies above, yet the game continued on until halftime. At the break, with Ware ahead 20-0, the officials called the coaches to midfield and decided to call it off. Since it reached halftime, the game was official with the hosts declared the winners.
“Obviously we wanted to finish this game,” Dragon said. “But circumstances beyond our control didn’t let us finish it. I think we learned some stuff about ourselves from tonight. Some things we need to work on just from that first half of football.”
Easthampton had no answer for the Ware run game early on, as Ware running back Talan Molina rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown on the opening drive. Molina finished with 81 yards on the ground to power the Ware offense.
Ware quarterback Brady Dyer converted a fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line in the second quarter to put Ware ahead 13-0, and then took advantage of an Eagles coverage breakdown and tossed a 44-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Gavin Sawabi to make it 20-0.
“We struggled getting off blocks,” Dragon said. “Our outside linebackers and defensive ends just couldn’t get off blocks to make our inside linebackers come over the top and make the tackles.”
The Eagles struggled to move the ball offensively as well. Easthampton converted only two first downs in the half, which came on consecutive plays that accounted for 40 of its 65 yards. On that drive where the first downs came, the Eagles worked the ball deep into Ware territory, but turned it over on downs at the 13-yard line. That was the last possession Easthampton got in the shortened contest.
Dragon felt that his offense had figured something out, and that drive certainly proved it.
“We started moving the ball, we finally just started playing football,” Dragon said. “They started figuring things out, the coaching started making the right calls, adjusting to what their defense was doing.”
Based on how the first half ended, it looked as if Easthampton might turn things around in the second half to at least make it interesting.
“We were very confident,” Dragon said. “It definitely got better in the second quarter. We were ready to go for the second half.”
To make the trip to Ware, wait an hour and 40 minutes past the original game time to get the chance to play, and only have the opportunity to play one half of football was frustrating for Dragon and the Eagles – and rightfully so.
And with lightning flashing consistently throughout the first half, the game could have been called much earlier – which would have given the teams a chance to resume the game on a later date. Regardless, Dragon still had several takeaways from his team’s brief season opener.
“I think we all need to pick it up a little bit, but yeah,” Dragon said. “Offensively I started seeing strides more so than the defensive side of the ball. We’ve got some players out there that, when they play to their level, I know we can be good.”
Easthampton (0-1) will host Monument Mountain in its home opener next Friday at 7 p.m.
Smith Voc 43, Minuteman Regional 0 – It was a statement opening victory for the visiting Vikings on Friday night.
A long bus ride to Lexington proved fruitful for Smith Vocational, which opened its 2023 slate with a dominant 43-0 victory over Minuteman Regional.
Jared Baer and Jamie Tobin each rushed for two touchdowns in the victory for the Vikings (1-0), while Alex Martinez hit John Majewski for a touchdown through the air and Bryan Leyton also ran for a score in the win.
Next up for Smith Voc is an away game at Ludlow on Friday night.
Lunenburg 32, Frontier 6 — The Redhawks went on the road and were unable to come up with a victory over the Blue Knights, falling 32-6 on Saturday.
The game was tied 0-0 in the first quarter on Friday night when the game was postponed due to lightning.
Aiden Dredge scored the lone Frontier touchdown, doing so on a 55-yard quarterback counter.
