AMHERST — The play design told Amherst Regional senior running back Will Budington to go right.
He saw a hole open up on the left.
Three shaken defenders and 15 yards later, the Hurricanes had their only touchdown with 1 minute, 57 seconds remaining in a 35-6 loss to Wahconah to open the season Friday.
“The backside opened up. I saw the window. I haven’t seen a lot of holes tonight,” Budington said. “Saw one and I took it, one move and go.”
Budington provided the brightest offensive spot for Amherst (0-1), running for 41 yards and adding a 17-yard catch.
The Hurricanes struggled to find an offensive rhythm for most of the night. They punted the ball four times, failed to convert two fourth downs and turned the ball over once.
“There’s not a lot of positives to say. It’s a tough game,” Amherst coach Chris Ehorn Jr. said. “I saw a lot of guys doing things they didn’t know how to do when practice started.”
Wahconah quarterback Will Geneway made it the toughest on the Amherst defense.
He finished 7-of-11 passing for 90 yards and two touchdowns, adding 23 yards and a third score on the ground to put Wahconah (1-0) up 21-0 with 5:13 left in the second quarter.
“He can chuck the ball. He’s calm, cool, collected, he’s everything a quarterback should be,” Wahconah coach Gary Campbell said. “He made some nice throws, he made some nice runs, he’s definitely our point guard.”
He dropped a 10-yard pass to Conner Mathews to open the scoring with 5:33 left in the first quarter.
Connor Washburn caught his second scoring pass and ran the remaining yardage for a 45-yard score to make it 14-0 a little over three minutes later.
“We noticed one of the corners biting on a screen pass and threw it over the top of him next time,” Geneway said.
On Wahconah’s following drive that ended the first quarter and started the second, the Warriors played five downs.
Geneway started the drive with a 16-yard run then threw an incomplete pass. His 1-yard run ended the quarter.
It should have been third down to start the second quarter, but the stadium scoreboard and chain gang showed second down.
Amherst (0-1) stopped Tanner Hastings for no gain, thinking it had forced a turnover.
The referees called it fourth down. Geneway completed a 7-yard pass to Conner Noyes that did not move the chains.
“I’m not blaming the refs at all. But coming from Amherst in every sport I feel like we get the short end of the stick with refs,” Budington said. “You can’t control that. You’ve got to play through it. Three, four bad calls didn’t decide a game.”
Hastings rumbled in for a 6-yard touchdown with 6:24 to go in the third quarter, and the Warriors starting offense didn’t play another series.
Hastings’ score made it 28-0. He finished with 25 yards on just seven carries.
With the four-score lead in the third quarter, Wahconah went to its second string.
Amherst still struggled to stop it.
Nate Zink capped the backups’ first drive with a 5-yard touchdown that made it 35-0 with 1:23 remaining in the third quarter.
Tim Clayton forced the only turnover of the game with a spectacular interception in the third quarter.
He dove to tip the ball in the air and caught it on his way back down as he was falling for his first career pick.
“I saw the guy running a wheel, so I took my route to go and intercept it,” Clayton said. “It was just instincts.”
Amherst quarterback Miles Foerster finished with 58 yards passing and added another 10 on the ground. He was sacked three times.
“We had to talk to the line and say, ‘look he can juke out one guy, he can’t juke out two,’” Ehorn said. “The last drive of the second quarter, the offensive line looked amazing.”
That was Amherst’s best drive other than the touchdown. The Hurricanes marched 12 plays before back-to-back sacks gave the ball back to Wahconah.
Amherst next plays at Hoosac Valley, the defending Western Mass. Division 5 champion.
“I’m not discouraged at all. This is the hardest team we play,” Budington said. “I think when we play some less talented teams our athleticism will show more. This is one of the only teams I don’t think our size will be dominating.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.
Wahconah 35, Amherst Regional 6
|
Wahconah |
14 |
7 |
14 |
0 |
—35 |
|
Amherst |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
—6 |
First quarter
W— Mathews 10 pass from Geneway (Butler kick), 5:33.
W— Washbyrn 45 pass from Geneway (Butler kick), 2:27
Second quarter
W— Geneway 6 run (Butler kick), 5:13
Third quarter
W— Hastings 6 run (Butler kick), 6:24
W— Zink 5 run (Butler kick), 1:23
Fourth quarter
A— Budington 15 run (pass failed), 1:57
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Amherst–Budington 12-41, Suom 8-15, Foerster 9-10, Vecchio 1-0. Wahconah–Noyes, 8-47 Hastings 7-25, Geneway 3-23, Zink 6-23, Washburn 1-14 Melle 1-12, Pharmer 1-9, Mathers 2-8, Girard 2-4, .
4PASSING—Amhrest-Foerster 4-7-58-1. Wahconah-Geneway 7-11-90-0, Girard 2-8-50-0, Carlson 1-1-14-0
RECEIVING—Amherst–Hardy 1-23, Lyra 2-20, Budington 1-17. Wahconah-Washburn 1-45, McIlquham 2-31, Mathews 2-24, Hill 1-21, Noyes 1-7, Burris 1-5