NORTHAMPTON — Two fourth down plays altered the trajectory of the Smith Vocational football team’s 26-6 loss to Drury at home on Friday.
Smith Vocational needed six yards to pick up a fourth down conversion in the Blue Devils red zone trailing by just six points with 3 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Six yards to put the Vikings in a first and goal situation where a touchdown would tie the game.
Vikings quarterback Alex Martinez scrambled to his left, and was tackled a yard short, giving the ball back to Drury.
The Blue Devils gained a first down quickly then sputtered on their next set of downs to face a fourth and one at the start of the fourth quarter from their own 25.
“We knew we were going for it. We just had to decide what play we wanted to go with,” Drury coach Al Marceau said. “Jayshawn (Moore), he runs like a hammer.”
The Blue Devils handed the ball to Moore, their fullback, and he plowed ahead for four yards. Four plays after the conversion, Drury freshman receiver Jackson Powell burned the Vikings defense for a 35-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Pettengill up the left sideline. That put the Blue Devils (4-1) ahead 20-6 with 8:01 left.
The pair also connected for a 50-yard touchdown in the second quarter that made it 12-0.
Both the first and second quarters were interrupted when the lights on Smith Vocational’s sideline flicked off. The first interruption came 4:47 into the game. It caused a 23-minute delay where the players had to stay loose and warm in dropping temperatures.
They turned off again to a collective groan from the participants and spectators with 3:35 left in the second quarter. The referees decided to send the teams off the field for their halftime break and play the remaining time in the second after they returned, advancing directly to the third quarter after it ended much like the second quarter follows the first and the fourth follows the third normally.
“The kids did a great job staying focused,” Smith Vocational coach Alex Subocz said. “We had a bye week last week, they’ve been focused on the Drury game for two weeks now. Lights could have gone out a third or a fourth time, and they would have stayed focused.”
Smith Vocational (1-5) went into the locker room for “halftime” driving and kept it going to start the second quarter Part II. The Vikings capitalized on two Drury encroachment penalties plus a horse collar tackle combined with effective running by multiple backs to reach the red zone.
“We make our small guys block for each other,” Subocz said. “When they block, our plays go. You get to carry the ball if you block well.”
Jared Baer carried the ball to the Drury 1 with 37.5 seconds left in the second quarter, and Smith Vocational called timeout.
Subocz handed the ball to Caden Guimond, a Smith Academy student playing for the Vikings through the co-op program, and he turned up the field on a sweep, rolling into the end zone with 30.5 seconds on the clock. It cut Drury’s lead to 12-6, and Smith Vocational received the third quarter kickoff after deferring its choice to start the game.
“A couple weeks ago we were at Pathfinder (and won), it’s what we saw for the whole game, we saw it in spurts,” Subocz said. “We’re just looking to get that put together a whole game again.”
That drive ended with Martinez a yard short, and the Blue Devils scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to pull away. Drury running back Louis Guillotte carried the ball 15 times for 153 yards and two touchdown. He gave Drury the lead in the first quarter with a 29-yard touchdown run breaking tackles up the middle with 3:41 on the clock.
Then he put the game out of reach with a 57-yard scoring run with 3:18 left.
Smith Vocational drove back to the red zone and missed a field goal, the Vikings’ second unsuccessful kick after they failed to convert on their opening drive, too.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.