NORTHAMPTON — With three seconds left on the clock in the first half, the semifinal matchup between No. 2 Smith Vocational and No. 3 Blue Hills seemed to balance on a thread.

The Vikings desperately needed a stop to go into halftime with some momentum, keeping the game within reach so they could try and bounce back in the second. Blue Hills was looking for a dagger to bury Smith Voc, already up 22-6.

The ball was snapped, and it seemed like quarterback Brayden Mahoney moved in slow motion, launching a perfect 15-yard pass to a wide open Caiden Montas in the end zone, his third touchdown of the evening. Montas fell to his knees, the ball secure, and the mountain Smith Voc had to climb got a little bit bigger.

The Warriors rode a 30-6 halftime lead to a 52-12 victory, punching their ticket to the small school division championship game in the state vocational football tournament. Smith saw its run end one game shy of a title game, but despite the loss, the Vikings kept their heads high. This was Smith Voc’s first time ever qualifying for the postseason, and they were able to win their first game, a dramatic 36-32 win over Pathfinder, to even get into the semis.

“We set the foundation and the standard for this program. Coming off of a 1-10 season last year, now finishing 7-4, I think it’s just absolutely gonna shoot the program up substantially,” quarterback Alex Martinez said. “I can’t wait to watch the program grow from now. I’m just proud of these guys.”

Brayden LaRose got the Vikings’ lone touchdown in the first half, catching a beautiful 30-yard pass from Alex Martinez to pull Smith Voc within two points with 1:54 left in the first quarter. A failed two-point conversion attempt made it an 8-6 game, but the Warriors ended the first quarter on a 22-0 run to build up its lead; they also scored less than two minutes into the second half and got the two point conversion to make it 38-6.

After another Blue Hills touchdown, Jared Baer scored the team’s lone other touchdown of the game less than a minute into the fourth quarter to make it 46-12; once again, the two-point conversion attempt fell just short. The Warriors got one more TD, a 34-yard run, late in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring.

Blue Hills was significantly larger up front than Smith Voc, and that gave their offense extra space to work its way into the end zone seven times. Montas and Aidan Landers, two of the team’s captains, gave the Smith defense fits, combining for six of Blue Hills’ seven touchdowns.

“Blue Hills, they’re a talented team. If I try and skip acknowledging that, I’m not doing Blue Hills service. They’re in the vocational playoffs and normally they’re in the Final Four or finals year in and year out for a lot of different reasons, but their consistency is number one,” Smith Vocational head coach Alex Subocz said. “The scoreboard is ugly right now, but (we) stuck with it. They played hard throughout.”

The Vikings may be out of the playoffs, but their season isn’t over yet. They’ll play one more game this year, their traditional Thanksgiving game against Franklin Tech. The Eagles won the game last year, and the Vikings are determined to get the trophy back in their possession.

“I think we’re officially at the point we can call it a rivalry with Franklin Tech. We’ve played enough and the kids feel that way,” Subocz said. “The number one thing that the kids talked about – very few people talked about the (loss), they talked about getting the trophy back. So we play for a trophy. It’s been at Franklin Tech for way too long. We’re looking to put it back in our trophy case and have it here for a full year.”

Hannah Bevis can be reached at hbevis@gazettenet.com. Follow her on Twitter @Hannah_Bevis1.