EASTHAMPTON — If there is in fact a state football playoff berth in the near future for Easthampton, the Eagles will have had themselves a nice vigorous swim Thursday night to get there.

Atrocious field conditions prevailed at Mountain View School, where a steady downpour gradually turned the surface into a swamp. Almost predictably, neither Easthampton nor South Hadley could generate much of anything through a scoreless first half.

Turnovers proved the Eagles’ best friend, though, as the hosts capitalized on a pair of third-quarter fumble recoveries by Travis Carpenter to set themselves up with short fields. Patrick Larson and Luis Salgado ran for scores to give Easthampton a two-touchdown cushion, and the Eagles made it stick with a convincing 22-2 Suburban North victory.

Easthampton (5-3, 3-2 North) entered the week hovering just outside the Division 7 state tournament positions, holding down a No. 20 ranking with the top 16 teams qualifying and facing a difficult task to jump the four teams just ahead of them. South Hadley (4-4, 3-2 North) checked in at No. 12 in Division 7 and figures to stay within the top 16 even with Thursday’s defeat, but Easthampton will gladly play the scoreboard-watching game from here.

“We talked about protecting the football tonight, and we did a really good job with that,” said Eagles coach Kyle Dragon. “We wanted to use that to our advantage when we were on defense. For such bad conditions, it was one of our best offensive and defensive performances of the year.”

In the first half, the Eagles mustered three first downs and 46 total yards, compared to the Tigers’ three first downs and 36 yards. Easthampton had the best scoring chance late in the second quarter, reaching the South Hadley 17, but failed on fourth-and-6 with an incomplete pass.

The Tigers began the third quarter receiving the kickoff, but lost the ball two plays later when Carpenter covered a fumble at the South Hadley 40. Easthampton then worked the ball for nine plays, including gains of 9 and 14 yards by Larson and 10 yards for Salgado, before Larson dove in from a yard out to break the deadlock. Colin Hogan’s two-point run put the Eagles up 8-0 with 6:04 to play in the third.

Almost immediately, South Hadley coughed up the football again at its own 17 with Carpenter recovering. This time the Eagles needed only four plays, the last a 13-yard TD run by Salgado on a pitch from Hogan, and Easthampton took a 14-0 lead at the 2:18 mark.

South Hadley finally got some traction when Noah Hambley ran the kickoff back 32 yards to set up the Tigers at the Eagles’ 33. Cooper Wall had a 9-yard gain and Griffin Soderbaum hit Hambley for a 13-yard connection as the visitors reached the 1-yard line, but Easthampton’s Kinnon McColgan stopped Soderbaum for no gain on fourth down to give the Eagles possession.

Against its own goal line, Easthampton couldn’t advance and South Hadley’s Brody Keller took down Hogan in the end zone for a safety that came with 7:48 remaining in the fourth. After the Eagles free-kicked away, South Hadley moved to the Easthampton 23 before Noah Geddis jumped in front of a deflected Soderbaum pass at the 20 for the Eagles’ third takeaway of the night.

Larson then put a charge into the crowd with by far the longest play of the game, a 72-yard burst that took the ball down to the South Hadley 5. After a holding call, Hogan kept the football himself and swept the right side for a 15-yard score with 4:03 to play. Jake Kostek’s two-point run made it a 20-point game at 22-2.

One play later, Geddis recovered another South Hadley fumble at the Tigers’ 43 and the Eagles successfully killed the clock from there.

“We added some plays this week that we knew they weren’t going to be familiar with,” said Dragon. “That worked in our favor as well. The kids wanted to win for the seniors on their last night. I think we’re in a great spot. As the season’s gone on, we’ve really improved everywhere we can.”

Larson’s big gainer lifted his numbers to a game-high 122 yards on 14 carries, while Salgado added 26 yards and Kostek 23, part of the Eagles’ 186-yard rushing attack. Hogan completed only one pass in five tries, a 17-yarder to Larson.

South Hadley managed only 69 yards of offense, 56 of them on the ground, led by Hambley with 44 yards on 16 rushes. Wall contributed 18 yards.