AGAWAM — Agawam football hosted the Amherst in a defensive battle on Friday evening. Agawam (2-2) had the offensive edge to start the game over Amherst (2-2).
The Brownies won the toss and elected to receive the ball. Agawam senior running back Cole Ingham, returned the ball out to the 30 to start the game. The Brownies’ senior found his footing early on in the running game. Ingham bounced off defenders and stiff-armed his way for a 17-yard run.
A series of Amherst penalties moved the ball to the 50-yard line. The senior running back lowered his shoulder on a run, bulldozing a defender to move the ball to the Agawam 40-yard line. Brownies’ quarterback Domenick Pisano connected on a pass to wide receiver Joseph Duffy for 12-yards.
The Agawam offense was clicking on all cylinders. The Brownies mixed up the run and pass game, picking up first down after first down on a long methodical drive.
Pisano’s efficient passing game combined with Ingham’s strong runs put the ball one-yard out from the end zone. Ingham did the rest on the one and stormed by defenders for the first touchdown of the night with 5:46 left in the first quarter.
Agawam had some trickery up its sleeves and went for the two-point-conversion and succeeded thanks to Duffy’s run. The score would remain 8-0 after the first quarter.
Amherst had a golden opportunity to kick a field goal early on in the second quarter but it did not work out due to the holder mishandling the snap. The Brownies had the ball back on offense but were not able to muster together a drive in points. So Ingham punted the ball away to Agawam’s own 48-yard line.
Hurricanes’ quarterback Travis Isaebelle connected with tight end Gregory King on a 10-yard catch and run. But the Brownies’ defense had other plans and were able to bring up an Amherst fourth-and-5 with the ball on the 33. Isabelle dodged defenders on a 12-yard quarterback keeper for a big first down.
The momentum was shifting in the Hurricanes favor until Agawam’s defense was able to bring up another fourth down. On a fourth-and-4 with the ball 15 yards from the end zone a big pass interference call on Brownies’ Owen Angelini moved the ball to the 8-yard line.
Hurricanes’ running back Brady Klaes did the rest on an easy, eight-yard rushing touchdown that was followed by a successful PAT. The score remained 8-7 with Agawam on top going into half time.
The Hurricanes racked up three sacks in the first half thanks to Leo Inoue’s one and Liam Worgess’ two.
The third quarter displayed a dominant Brownies’ defense early on. Offensive miscues by Amherst caused a safety scored by Agawam, making it 10-7 with 10:12 left in the quarter.
Amherst came back with their own answer on offense. Isabelle threw dimes, dicing up Agawam’s secondary including a 20-yard pass to his tight end King. The drive ended up stalling with no points to show for it.
The Hurricanes punted the ball away early in the fourth down three, when the ball got muffed by one of the Brownies. This set Amherst up at the Agawam 10-yard line, knocking on the door to the end zone.
The Hurricanes found themselves in a tough fourth-and-goal, one yard out from the end zone when a clutch quarterback sneak from Isabelle scored to put Amherst back in front 14-10 with 9:46 left in the game.
But the Brownies had more fight in them. First-and-10 with the ball on the Hurricanes’ 11, Ingham shook off defenders for a 11-yard rushing touchdown, his second on the night. Agawam took another risk to go for two and it was successful. Gavin Cruz bounced off tacklers to make the score 18-14 with the Brownies on top.
No more points were scored due to Agawam playing lights out defense and keep away on offense to put the game out of reach.
Brownies head coach John Benjamin was proud of his team after the win.
“I’m very proud of my team,” Benjamin said. “We lost a couple of players last week and they could have put their heads down and they didn’t (against Holyoke), and they didn’t tonight. (The team) just kept fighting.”
Agawam will look to keep the momentum going forward next week against Pittsfield. Coach Benjamin gave his thoughts on what he’d like to see from his team come next week.
“We (need) to cut down on the penalties, the penalties are stuff that will get us beat,” Benjamin said. “We got to work more on our pass protection with (our) offensive line and just executing (plays) offensively and defensively.”
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