Thanksgiving football: South Hadley shuts out Holyoke, 33-0

HOLYOKE — The South Hadley football team won the 2025 edition of the ‘Battle of the Bridge’ against Holyoke on Thanksgiving, dominating in all facets en route to a 33-0 victory.

After a hard-fought first quarter that ended scoreless, the Tigers were faced with a third and nine from their own 39-yard line.

Griffin Soderbaum dropped back to throw, finding Noah Hambley in the backfield on a swing pass. Hambley took off down the left sideline, breaking through arm tackles on the way to the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown.

Hambley had a huge day for South Hadley, finishing with 161 rushing yards and 20 receiving yards. The junior also flew around on defense, tallying a team-high six tackles from his safety position, while nearly intercepting multiple passes.

“[Hambley] definitely never gives up,” Tigers head coach Brian Couture said. “It’s probably his highest [rushing] total of the year. He really motivates the rest of the team to be better.”

The run game was successful all morning long for South Hadley, totaling 252 yards and three touchdowns on the ground as a team.

Injuries plagued the Tigers, as Lincoln Belsky was not available in the backfield on Thursday. Chase Pecia took over some of the backfield duties, while remaining a threat on the perimeter at wide receiver.

During a two-minute drill before the half, Pecia took an end-around toss heading right, breaking away for a 28-yard rushing touchdown.

Pecia’s success continued in the third quarter, taking off on a post route down the field with six minutes to go. Soderbaum floated a pass over the defense, hitting his wide-open receiver for a 36-yard touchdown.

“[Thursday] was good for me, because it’s putting me in another spot that I really wasn’t familiar with, giving us a wrinkle to our offense so we could flow better as a team,” Pecia said.

Soderbaum had 129 passing yards and two touchdowns on the day, facilitating the offense and maintaining control of the ball with zero turnovers.

The senior’s first touchdown was the second score of the game, launching a deep ball to Brody Keller on the left side near the end zone. Keller rose up and used his size to box out the defender draped on him, coming away with the catch and crossing the goal line.

“We threw the ball well, we ran the ball well, O-line did good up front,” Soderbaum said. “It was all around working. I mean, 33 points is [awesome].”

The final score of the game came on South Hadley’s lone drive of the fourth quarter, stringing together a slew of productive runs. Jhaymhar Henry took a handoff heading right from nine yards out, galloping into the end zone untouched.

Despite the offensive explosion, the Tigers’ success on the defensive side of the ball was arguably more impressive. The Purple Knights struggled to move the ball throughout all four quarters, being forced to punt five times.

Injuries decimated Holyoke this season, dropping from 50 players to start the season down to just 26 on the active roster by Thursday’s kickoff.

Even with a banged-up team, the Purple Knights battled, making just a few key mistakes that cost them points on potential scoring drives.

“The 26 guys that we got, they gave us everything they got,” Holyoke head coach David Guzman said. “The effort was there all year. You know, we just didn’t come out on top.”

Jesus Morales had a productive day on the ground for the Purple Knights, using his combination of speed and strength to gash the defense for big gains.

Devin Velez faced pressure on a good number of his dropbacks, using his speed and elusiveness to make the most of some broken plays.

“The effort we all put in was the best that we ever did this season,” Morales said. “I want to thank all my seniors because we understood that this could be possibly our last game together as a team. We understand that win or lose, we’ll always be together, that this loss isn’t gonna bring us down and we’re gonna just keep building as a team.”

Thursday was a statement win for South Hadley, defeating Holyoke for the fourth Thanksgiving in a row, giving its senior class a clean sweep over its cross-town rival.

“It was very special performing like that on a day like this,” Hambley said. “We had a rough end of the season, and to win on Thanksgiving and everybody’s spirits to be up, that’s just wonderful and great.”