DALTON — The annual Route 9 Rumble was held at Wahconah High School Friday night.
Truth be told, it wasn’t much of a rumble.
Host Wahconah scored touchdowns the first four times it had the ball against Northampton. The visiting Blue Devils gave the Warriors a first quarter safety, and the score was one-sided enough that running time commenced from the kickoff in the third quarter as the Warriors routed Northampton 48-0.
The Blue Devils beat Wahconah 34-11 last year to retake the Route 9 Rumble trophy, which now goes back in the Wahconah trophy case.
The loss was a tough one for veteran coach Joe Kocot. The Northampton mentor said he is hopeful that some of the younger players who were on the field could take something from the game.
“We started five freshmen and probably another six sophomores,” Kocot said. “We had guys switch jerseys. We had guys move from line to backfield and backfield to line, so they had to switch numbers.
“I think the young kids will take something out of it.”
Payton Shippee had a big night for the Warriors, running the ball seven times for 129 yards. He scored on runs of 6, 33 and 59 yards. Cooper himself scored on a 27-yard pass play from quarterback Landon Corcoran with five seconds left in the second quarter. Cooper broke a couple of tackles on his way to the end zone.
Going into Friday night’s game, Wahconah was the No. 10 seed in the MIAA Division VII field. Since the top 16 teams qualify for the state tournament, that means — if the tournament started today — Wahconah would be at Tyngsborough for the first round. There are still games to be played Saturday before brackets come out Sunday afternoon.
The Blue Devils, which were winless coming into Berkshire County, won the coin flip and elected to take the ball. The first Northampton drive started on its 35 yard line. The Blue Devils went seven yards in three plays, and a 18-yard punt by Marcus Oquendo gave Wahconah the ball on its 40.
On the first play, Noah Poirier ran for 22 yards through a gaping hole up the middle. Campbell called the same play again and Poirier ran for 23 more. With first-and-10 on the Northampton 15, Shippee did the rest. He gained nine yards on first down and scored on a six-yard run.
If Northampton was to have any chance, it was going to have to play a perfect game. That didn’t happen because on the second play of the Blue Devils’ second drive, running back Sincere Martinez fumbled on the Northampton 32 and Wahconah’s Garret Taylor recovered.
Taylor caught a first-down pass from Landon Corcoran for 31 yards and two plays later, Poirier burst in from a yard out for the touchdown. Wahconah missed the first conversion, but Braedyn Melle ran the ball in for two points, making it 14-0 with 6:20 left.
By the time the clock read 0:00, the Warriors had the safety on a bad punt snap out of the end zone and a 33-yard Shippee touchdown, making it 22-0.
“Coming into the game, I knew Northampton wasn’t where they want to be,” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell Jr. said. “Certainly from there, it’s about when you go out and have a team that might not be as good, you can’t give them confidence. I think our kids did a good job … making sure they played at their speed and tempo, and with their fundamentals.”
Wahconah scored three more touchdowns in the second quarter, one on Bryce Smith’s five-yard run, Shippee’s third of the night of 59 yards and a 26-yard strike from Corcoran to Cooper. The big tight end broke a couple of tackles and got into the end zone. That made it 42-0.
The Blue Devils stopped a fourth-quarter Wahconah drive and took over on their 38.
Sincere Martinez gained a yard on first down, but his facemask was grabbed on the tackle. The 15-yard penalty gave Northampton a first down on its 48.
J.C. Flores, who ended the night 5 for 15 for 19 yards and two interceptions, found J.J. Moore for 12 yards and a first down. Then Martinez ran for 23 and 14 yards on consecutive carries, putting the ball on the Wahconah 3-yard line.
But since the clock had been running, Northampton had time for one more play. A Flores pass for Martinez was broken up by Wahconah freshman linebacker Colton Jennings, the horn sounded, and the game was over.
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Northampton 0 0 0 0 — 0
Wahconah 22 20 6 0 — 48
First Quarter
W — Payton Shippee 6 run (Pass failed), 7:53.
W — Noah Poirier 1 run (Braedyn Melle run), 6:20.
W — Safety, ball snapped out of end zone, 4:16.
W — Shippee 33 run (Pass failed), 3:14.
Second Quarter
W — Bryce Smith 5 run (Jacob Cooper run), 9:58.
W — Shippee 59 run (Pass failed), 3:26.
W — Cooper 26 pass from Landon Corcoran (Pass failed), 0:05.
Third Quarter
W — Jerry Beaubrun 28 run (Pass failed), 7:50.
———
NH Wah
First Downs 3 13
Rushes-yards 17-49 24-258
Passing yards 19 99
Comp-Att-Int 5-15-2 7-13-0
Punts-Avg. 4-24.3 0-0.0
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 1-0
Penalties-Yards 1-4 4-35
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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — NH: Sincere Martinez 12-54, Sean Flynn 2-(minus-3), J.C. Flores 2-(minus-2). Wah: Noah Poirier 6-84, Payton Shippee 7-127, Braedyn Melle 1-0, Bryce Smith 2-5, Giuseppe Vianna 2-3, Aidan Hagmaier 4-16, Jerry Beaubrun 2-23.
PASSING — NH: Flores 5-15-2 19. Wah: Landon Corcoran 6-9-0 89, Hagmaier 1-4-0 10.
RECEIVING — Martinez 3-6, J.J. Moore 2-12. Wah: Smith 2-11, Garret Taylor 1-31, Owen Brennan 1-10, Shawn Peltier 1-17, Jacob Cooper 1-27, Aiden Bush 1-10.