AMHERST – It felt like déjà vu at Community Field on Thursday night.
Just five days earlier, Amherst running back Jameson Dion exploded for 346 total yards and five touchdowns in a Hurricanes blowout win.
Well, Thursday was no different. Dion once again shined, dazzling for 324 total yards and six touchdowns as Amherst rolled to a 58-0 win over Springfield International Charter School.
Hurricanes head coach Vinnie Guiel, now in his second year, didn’t see the same look he saw Thursday on his players faces at all last season. Amherst has been locked in on a different level in 2023, and a lot of it has to do with everybody buying in to what Guiel is preaching.
“It’s the combination of them understanding that we’re trying to build a winning culture at Amherst and that we’re trying to turn the tide on what the program has been historically,” Guiel said. “You should’ve seen them in the locker room. The most proud I’ve been of my boys is tonight, and I think moving forward we need to keep the same intensity.”
Amherst raced out to a 28-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, with Dion scoring three touchdowns on the ground and one through the air on a 70-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Gavier “NeNe” Fernandez.
The Hurricanes out-gained the Bulldogs 251-25 in the first quarter. Their defense, led by Matt Hockman, Neil Cunniffe, Junior Ramsey, and Dion, was swarming, and Springfield International (1-1) had no place to run nor any time to throw.
“This is the most fired up I’ve seen us come out and play right off the bat,” Guiel said. “A couple of the [SICS] coaches over there coached some of our guys, so it was a good little rivalry game. Hats of to SICS, they’re a second year program, and we can be a lot to handle with Jameson, our o-line, and NeNe. We can be difficult, and I thought they played well.”
Fernandez had the easiest job on the field Thursday. All he had to do was toss or hand the ball off to Dion, Hockman (89 yards, one touchdown), or Ramsey and watch them run wild into the end zone. Fernandez only completed one pass in the win – a 70-yard touchdown to Dion. Although he’s just the facilitator, Fernandez has the best seat in the house to watch his backfield cook.
“I love seeing all of them work,” Fernandez said. “Like we said coming into the season, we have the best backfield in western Mass., and we’re just proving to everybody that we do.”
Hockman has ripped off several chunk runs during Amherst’s first two games. Having Dion, who acquires the majority of attention from opposing defenses, alongside him makes his life much more simple.
“I enjoy playing with JD, because when he runs the ball one way, it makes defenses very confused when I get the ball the other way,” Hockman said. “It’s great to run the ball when they think it’s going the other way.”
Deception is one of the most important keys to the Hurricanes offense, but it also helps having three horses who are all capable of shouldering the bulk of the carries – which keeps fresh legs toting the rock every down. Either way, the double wing formation Guiel adores has proven unstoppable thus far.
“That’s the beauty of the double wing,” Guiel said. “When you’re watching from the sidelines, you can’t tell [how hard it is to stop]. But when it’s right in front of you and you see somebody go in motion, you can’t really tell who has the ball. We teach our quarterback to stay nice and low under center, so all the defense sees is the motion.”
Dion ran in scores from 60 and 53 yards in the second quarter, while Hockman cashed in from 8 yards out. Amherst led 52-0 at halftime.
Senior Danny Alexander added the lone second-half touchdown to bring the game to its final score of 58-0. The most substantial difference this season has been the consistency of Guiel and the coaching staff, according to Hockman.
“I give a lot of credit to Vinnie,” Hockman said. “From day one, it’s been buy into the system. We did last year, and we’ve only improved from that. This is the first time I’ve had a repeat coach since I’ve played football in seventh grade, so it’s just great to have the same playbook and the same coach again.”
Amherst (2-0) has now won its first two games by a combined score of 108-6. Guiel knows his team isn’t going to be winning games by an average margin of 51 points every game considering the Hurricanes’ schedule now becomes more daunting. The biggest question he has for his team is whether or not they can sustain this success against tougher opponents.
“The schedule gets harder,” Guiel said. “We’ve got Holyoke next week, and Holyoke is not bad by any means. Then it gets harder from there, we got Wahconah. We don’t expect to be beating people by 58 every time.”
The ’Canes travel to Holyoke next Thursday at 7 p.m. It’ll be a homecoming for Fernandez, who transferred from Holyoke to Amherst ahead of the 2023 academic year. Fernandez said he’s looking forward to matching up with his friends and former teammates, and he’s eager to stick it to them.
“It means a lot,” Fernandez said. “A lot of those guys have been talking. I’m not gonna say much about it, but we’re just gonna go in there and beat them just like this.”
