WILLIAMSTOWN -- The Mount Greylock football team could taste the victory.
St. Joseph's Jon Bianchi just had a fourth-down snap go over his head and into the end zone for a safety and the Crusaders were deflated.
"That was the momentum shift," Greylock's Nick DiSanti said. "Everyone on their team just started to hang their heads and they were starting to get gassed. We were so ready to go and pumped up, we just wanted to stick it to them."
Running back Ethan Ryan took care of the rest. After the Crusaders' free punt, the Mounties took the ball at their own 20. Ryan took a hand off on the first play and broke to the right for 30 yards. He then took another hand off and broke to the left but cut back to the right and ran for 49 more yards and a touchdown to make it 14-0 with three minutes to play in the first half.
The senior back wasn't done just yet, however. He scored two more times to fuel a 44-6 victory over St. Joseph's and extend the Mounties' win streak to 33 straight games.
On Greylock's first possession of the second half he finished the drive with a 20-yard score.
"I think that first score of the second half is really what put the nail in the coffin," Ryan said. "They were just down and we were really pumped up. We wanted to prove to everyone that yeah, we lost a lot of guys last year, but we are just as good this year."
Ryan's 49-yard touchdown run in the second quarter brought him
"Offensive line," Ryan said. "They do it and they were just on [Friday night]. I mean our offensive line was there tonight and the holes were really easy to find."
This season marks the fourth straight year the Mounties have had a 1,000-yard rusher. This year it comes with a fairly young and inexperienced offensive line leading the way.
"It's really a credit to the job that coach [Brian] Gill has done with that line," Greylock head coach Shawn Flaherty said. "They've just done a super job all season."
While Ryan was sprinting past the 1,000 marker, the Greylock defense was holding another one of Berkshire County's top backs to minimal yards.
The Crusaders' Lavante Wiggins came into the game ranked third in the league in yards, while Tank Roberson was fifth. Combined the duo had rushed for more than 1,000 yards this year. On Friday, it would be a different story. Wiggins was held to just nine yards. Roberson had a little more luck. He gained 30 yards on the ground and added 75 receiving on a big pass play in the fourth quarter. The Crusaders ran only 26 plays in the game, compared to Greylock's 52.
"It's always the game plan to stop Lavante," Flaherty said. "But Tank is a guy who can pop the big one and he proved that again tonight. I really think we just did a great job of prepping for this game and all our guys just played an excellent game."
The defense was bolstered by the return of DiSanti to the line. He had missed the past three weeks with a high-ankle sprain.
"After three weeks off, I was just itching to play," DiSanti said. "We were just able to shut them down and our line backers did a great job at just containing them."
DiSanti tackled Wiggins three times on St. Joseph's first drive, and that was just the start of the night for the junior defensive tackle.
"Nick was huge. I think he made some really impressive sticks on Lavante early on," Flaherty said. "He's just a very strong kid and he played fantastic tonight."
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
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