CHESHIRE -- Hoosac Valley's offensive first half wasn't what first-year coach Dayne Poirot was looking for or expected from his team.
Luckily for the Hurricanes, their defense held the Lee Wildcats to just 57 first-half yards, and the offense exploded in the second half for a 29-0 win.
The Wildcat defense did just as well in the first half, holding Hoosac to just 81 yards and seven points.
"We kind of felt like some of our backs weren't running through tackles the way they should be [in the first half]," Poirot said. "We had a lot of guys getting taken down by one tackler. You can't be taken down by one tackler."
The second half would prove drastically different, as Hoosac came out of the locker room and demanded complete control from the start.
The Hurricanes opened the second half with a 10-play 82 yard drive that ate seven minutes and 18 seconds of the third quarter and was capped off by a 45-yard burst by Blake Gaylord for touchdown.
"We went over game plans at half time and found out what schemes were working and where the holes were," Gaylord said. "Then we just hit those holes and bounced through them and off tacklers."
The Hurricanes wouldn't have to wait nearly as long to score again.
Tyler Mach intercepted a pass from Lee's Deaglan Giarolo on the Wildcats second play after the big touchdown strike.
"It was just really quick," Mach said. "I took my three-step drop turned
Three plays later Gaylord found the end zone again, this time from 7-yards out.
"In that first drive of the second half they just beat us up front," Lee coach Keith Thomson said. "They moved the ball down the field and that touchdown deflated us a little bit, it took some energy out of us and the rest is history."
The offensive line keyed most of the success the Hurricanes had.
"[At half time] we knew we were just one block away from busting off some big plays," full back Ian Hill said. "We were able to pick it up. Blake's [45-yard touchdown] run was because of that one big block."
After the back-to-back touchdowns the Wildcats were never able to crawl back into the game. A swarming Hurricane defense held its opponent to just four yards and no first downs. They also forced two interceptions.
"Defensively I thought we played pretty well," Poirot said. "We made a few mistakes in the first half. We'll go back and look at the film, I think we won't feel as good as we do know about this one on Monday."
Behind junior quarterback Matt Braman and an offensive line anchored by senior Zach O'Neil, Hoosac found it's way offensively.
"I think it was just the intensity," Mach said. "We came out a little slow, but the captains made us pick it up in the second half."
Mach plowed through defenders for a 5-yard touchdown run to break the scoreless tie in the first half. It was the sophomore's first varsity touchdown.
Braman put the game out of reach for good in the fourth quarter when he completed a 30-yard strike to Trevor Alibozek for a touchdown. Immediately after realizing the ball he took a big hit from a Lee linebacker, but popped up quickly to celebrate the late touchdown.
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
Font Resize
