GREENFIELD — David Carey continues to make plays for the Greenfield offense.
The senior did a little bit of everything Friday night against Frontier, rushing for 102 yards and tossing 105 yards through the air against the Redhawk defense. Three of his passes went for touchdowns as the Green Wave pulled away with a 26-6 independent win at Vets Field.
Greenfield moved to 3-0 on the season with the victory.
“That’s our biggest win yet,” Carey said. “That’s our rivalry game now that we lost [the] Turners [game]. We didn’t want to take them lightly and came and outplayed them.”
With the Greenfield offense making big plays, the Green Wave defense did its job to stifle a tough Redhawk offense. Greenfield forced five punts, intercepted two passes and limited Frontier running back Josh Semaski to 39 yards on the ground.
“That’s all [defensive coordinator Al] Dean,” Carey said. “He gets us very well prepared. There wasn’t much we were surprised about.”
Both teams were trying to feel each other out in the first quarter, with the Green Wave getting the ball into the Redhawk redzone twice — once after a high snap on a punt — but the Frontier defense came up with a pair of stops to keep Greenfield off the scoreboard.
That changed in the second quarter, as the Green Wave drove into the redzone and Carey connected with running back Ryan Pulizari for a six-yard touchdown to put Greenfield up 6-0 with 4:21 to play in the second quarter.
With 1:50 to play in the half and the Redhawks facing a third-and-eight from their own 21, quarterback Sam Schreiber dropped back and was picked off by Brendan Driscoll, who went untouched into the end zone to give the Green Wave a 12-0 lead going into the locker room.
“Both teams in the beginning were trying to figure each other out,” Greenfield coach Mike Kuchieski said. “Frontier is a physical football team and they didn’t have some things go their way in the first two games. They play hard and I was telling our kids we had to play four quarters and we did. We overcame some plays that weren’t made and kept plugging along and I’m proud of them.”
Turnovers and other mistakes have plagued Frontier (0-3) to start the season, something coach Scott Dredge is hoping to clean up.
“We fell victim for the third week in a row to mistakes and big plays,” Dredge said. “It’s a learning curve that our team has to adjust to. They have to buckle down and we’ll get back at it at practice this week to try to limit those mistakes.”
The play of the game came with 3:56 to play in the third quarter, with the Green Wave staring down a third-and-11 from the Frontier 45.
Carey faked a reverse and rolled to his left, using his speed to evade a rushing Redhawk defender. He rifled it to a wide open David Damkoehler, who waltzed into the end zone to put Greenfield ahead 18-0.
“I saw the end coming hard so I knew I had to run backwards,” Carey said. “I tried to beat him to the outside and David was wide open. Props to him, he got open and I just had to get it there.”
Carey used his legs to set up the final Green Wave score, breaking down the sideline for a 45-yard gain to the Frontier 17. He fired a 17-yard score on a slant to Devin Buchanon, with Driscoll’s rush on the two-point try making it a 26-0 game with 11:53 to go.
“They did a nice job taking away our inside run,” Kuchieski said. “We didn’t sustain our blocks but it’s a work in progress. We have some things to work on and David made some plays. He’s athletic and we hoped that that would happen.”
Schreiber was intercepted by Xavier Carlo late, but recovered by tossing a 20-yard touchdown pass to Ben Lizotte with 26 seconds left to prevent the shutout. Redhawk tight end Dan Diemand had a big game, hauling in three passes for 76 yards.
After being on the road for all three games to open the season, Frontier returns home next Friday as it looks to get in the win column against Lee for the Intercounty League South opener.
“It’s frustrating and I know our kids are frustrated,” Dredge said. “We’re just hoping at some point it clicks. We’ll keep working. Finally we have a home game next week and that’s something to be proud of. We’re in league play and it starts counting so it’s time to buckle down.”
Greenfield travels to Athol next Friday looking to keep its unbeaten streak going with an IL North opener.