Athol Daily News – HS Football: the defense carries Greenfield to Athol, 36-14

ATHOL – Needing a spark, the Greenfield defense came to the rescue on Friday night.

Brendan Driscoll caught a pass from Athol quarterback Aiden Melanson in the red zone and sent it back 94 yards off the Bears’ 1-yard line in the first quarter, Drew Conant recovered a fumble and Ryan Pulizari snatched it away. a pass from Melanson in the second quarter and came back 55 yards from the house, giving the Green Wave a trio of play-changing momentum in the first half.

Greenfield’s offense kicked off in the second half to come out with a 36-14 Intercounty League North victory at O’Brien Field.

“We were lucky,” said Green Wave coach Mike Kuchieski. “We looked a bit in our pocket offensively and the defense got stronger. We worked on some things – our tackles weren’t good defensively – but we were in the right place at the right time and we scored points that kept us going. If we don’t do it on defense it’s a much tighter ball game. The game was much closer than the score indicated.

Athol (1-3) was playing without starting quarterback Caleb Cox. Outside of turnovers, the Bears moved the ball well and Dilan Fountain ran well in loss.

“I thought our offense was a lot better than last week,” said Athol coach Bill LaRose. “It got a lot better despite my game calls being terrible. I think Dilan, when he’s got a little bit of daylight, he’s a game breaker. Our freshman quarterback Aiden Melanson stepped up and did an amazing job.

After a Greenfield punt (4-0) to start the game, the Bears led the field but Driscoll managed his interception and sent him back to Athol 1, where Pulizari propelled him. Quarterback David Carey threw the two-point try on himself to give the Green Wave an 8-0 lead with 3:54 left in the first quarter.

Conant recovered from an Athol 39 fumble on the ensuing possession and eight games later, Joey White scored three yards to put Greenfield, 14-0, ahead with a second left in the first quarter.

Pulizari’s six-pick came with 7:45 left in the first half, Carey finding Driscoll for the two-run try to give Green Wave a 22-0 lead.

Fountain came back to life on Athol’s next possession, smashing two big points before making their way into the end zone with 4:12 left in the half. Melanson tried to reduce Greenfield’s lead to 22-8 before the half.

The green wave scored on a pair of long drives in the second half. The first was five minutes behind in the third quarter, ending with Carey finding Ty Griswold for a nine-yard touchdown on a third and four with 1:10 left in the quarter. White converted the two-run try to make it a 30-8 game.

Athol responded with his own training, as Fountain again interrupted a big run to put the Bears in the red zone. Two plays later, he took a nine-yard meter to reduce Greenfield’s lead to 30-14 with 11:54 to go.

The Green Wave responded with a seven minute ride that culminated with White plowing three yards with 3:36 to go.

Despite the win, Kuchieski sees a lot his team needs to clean up before facing the undefeated Palmer next Friday.

“We have to get back to it and work harder in training,” Kuchieski said. “I feel good that we won, but I just wish we played better. It’s good to win knowing we haven’t played well, but we know what we need to work on.

The Bears are looking to bounce back next Friday against rival Mahar, a game LaRose knows his team will be ready to play.

“We have a young group of kids playing and a lot of first graders,” LaRose said. “We just need to fix our mistakes. We made mistakes because we are young and we need to polish things up. It’s October, it’s a bit early for the turkey but our rivals are coming and we have to be ready.