BELCHERTOWN — It hasn’t happened since 2012, but the Belchertown football team has a chance to win eight games in a season if it can complete one final task – defeat rival Pathfinder on Thanksgiving Day to close out the year.
The Orioles aren’t overlooking the importance of Thursday morning’s finale (9 a.m.).
“We’re treating this as our state championship,” Belchertown head coach Dan McCarthy said. “These kids know what’s at stake. A lot of them have friends over at Pathfinder, it’s like a battle of the tech kids and the public school kids. I was a tech school kid myself, so I get that those boys are wired and gonna want to hit. I know they’re licking their chops wanting to take it to us with the season we had, but we’re a little pissed off from last year with what happened. We wanna go out and show them some Belchertown physicality.”
Belchertown (7-3) lost to Pathfinder by 25 points a season ago — a 47-22 defeat in Thorndike. A lot of the Orioles’ star players either didn’t play in the 2022 edition or attempted to play through an illness that was going around the team. Now-senior running back Chris Daskam was one of those, and he was bottled up for the majority of the contest.
He and the rest of the squad are geared up and ready to go to flip the script in 2023.
“I’m pumped up, I’m glad I’m healthy. Last year the whole team was sick, and this year the whole team is healthy,” Daskam said. “I’m pumped up about that, and I’m glad we’re feeling good. I’m just gonna run as hard as I can and get as many yards as I can to cap off the season.”
Daskam is hovering around 1,500 yards and has scored over 20 touchdowns this season. The Belchertown captain established himself last year as one of the best running backs in the region, and has only strengthened his case for that top spot.
McCarthy is likely to reward Daskam, along with fellow senior play makers Landon Andre, Josh Grillom and Nico St. George, with a lot of touches in their final game wearing orange and black.
“I’m just incredibly proud of him,” McCarthy said of Daskam. “Between him, Landon, Josh, and Nico, I think they were cornerstones when they first got here as sophomores and as a coaching staff we saw their potential and talent. We knew that by their senior year, it was gonna be on us – wins or losses. They really stepped up to the plate, and after that sophomore year I don’t think he missed a clinic, his butt was in the weight room every day, and it feathered off to the rest of the backfield.”
That backfield, as talented as it is, wouldn’t see the same light of day it does without the dirty work done up front by the offensive line. Belchertown won just four games in 2022, and the guys up front knew this year could be one to remember – because of the returning skill-position players – if they took a leap in the off-season.
They also recognized that an offense can only be as good as the players who are providing the running lanes and time to throw.
“I think the o-line from last year took a deep look at themselves,” McCarthy said. “They knew they had a talented group behind them, so they had to step their game up. Lo and behold, Daskam has been one of the best running backs in western Mass. this year. Credit to his hard work and the offensive line’s dedication to getting better as a unit.”
The Orioles were one of two football programs in Hampshire County to make a state tournament appearance. Belchertown fell to Shawsheen Valley Tech in the first round of the MIAA Division 5 state tournament. Pathfinder (4-6) sits a few divisions down in Division 8, but McCarthy doesn’t want his team taking the Pioneers lightly.
Being a former tech-school player himself back in the day he remembers the physicality his team played with in rivalry games – and expects the same from Pathfinder.
“It’s going to be a more competitive game than people think,” McCarthy said. “I get we’re in completely different divisions than Pathfinder, but they’re a talented team. I think it’s gonna be a battle – running the ball, physical, all that fun stuff. Who wants it more is gonna win at the end of the day, and I know my boys are hungry. They’ll say it first-hand, they laid an egg against Ware, and they faced a very talented team the week before. They wanna come out and prove that this two-game losing streak isn’t who they are.”
As for Daskam, he has more on the line than bragging rights against some of his friends over at Pathfinder. He’s also looking to become the single-season leader in wins out of all the Daskams to come through Belchertown. His older brothers Cal and Clay never reached eight wins in a season.
“It would feel great to finish 8-3, none of my brothers finished with that many wins so I would love to beat them out,” Daskam said. “I’m just happy that the program is doing as well as it is this year. We’re in a good place.”
This season has meant so much to McCarthy and a Belchertown program that won a combined seven games in his first two years at the helm. With seven alone this season, and a potential for No. 8 with a rivalry-game victory, there’s no question this has been a monumental, program-shifting campaign.
“Making the tournament put the program in a positive light,” McCarthy said. “People saw the football team as an average team when I got hired, but I told the kids we’re not here to be an average team. This is what the expectation at Belchertown is: to make the state tournament. All our fall athletics made it to it, and it was our time to shine. It’s our time to shine and show the kids that all the hard work, from our first year here to now, what it turns in to. Winning on Thanksgiving would be the exclamation point on telling some of these athletes at this school to come out for football.”
The senior class has one final opportunity to put a stamp on their legacies and close the book on their careers. Daskam has enjoyed his ride with guys he grew up with and is thankful for some new faces who recently started playing football. With all of them putting on pads one last time together at the high school level, he thinks they’re going to channel the emotion of the game and use it to dominate Pathfinder to get back for last season’s loss.
“We’ve had some guys never play before that came out last year, and it’s just been great that we were able to get the senior class we have,” Daskam said. “It’s just awesome to be able to play with my buddies one last time. We’re coming out, and we’re not losing this one. I guarantee it.”
