Mounties win third Super Bowl in a row behind Ryan

WESTFIELD – Super Bowl season was abound last Saturday at Westfield State, as the Mt. Greylock Mounties picked up the hardware for the third consecutive season with a 24-0 win over Belchertown.

Ethan Ryan ran for 220 yards and all three touchdowns, finishing a historic career where the senior running back accumulated over 2,000 yards rushing on the season.

“Ethan is a special back and a special player for the last two years – he did a fantastic job and had a fantastic career,” said Mounties Head Coach Shawn Flaherty.

Ryan’s first touchdown came in the second quarter, after freshman quarterback Brodie Altiere found tight end Brett McCormack on a key third-down rollout play, giving the Mounties a first-and-goal from the three-yard line.

Ryan punched it in on the next play, as Altiere pulled off the quarterback sneak for the two-point conversion as the Mounties led early, 8-0.

“I am very proud of the kids, they played a great game,” Flaherty said. “Hat’s off to Belchertown; they played us tough defensively.”

The Mounties also played Belchertown tough defensively, aside from withstanding an opening drive by the Orioles leading to a short missed field goal. The Orioles tried to attack Flaherty’s secondary with post patterns to the sidelines, which the Mounties were more than equipped to handle.

Mounties defensive backs Eric Leitch and Tyrell Thomas tipped every long pass, as well as laying out some receivers with crushing hits over the middle to limit Belchertown’s aerial attack to a mere 33 yards while picking off three passes.

“We had to respect their quarterback – we had five guys back there and Leitch had a heck of a day, as did Thomas and Ryan – we made those tip plays, they just played superb back there,” Flaherty said.

The Mounties came out the second half and continued to run the ball effectively; however, they did make one costly error.

Ryan coughed up the ball inside the Orioles 10-yard line, giving Belchertown some momentum, trailing by one score.

Belchertown got creative by running several option shovel passes underneath the blitzing linebacker, which resulted in three quick first downs and putting the ball in Mounties territory.

However, the Mounties’ Tyler Picard made the play of the game as he chased down Belchertown quarterback Nicolas Leduc for a third-down sack, as the Orioles QB tried to roll out to make a throw.

“It was huge,” Flaherty said. “It was a momentum switch – a game changer for us – they were driving it down our throats – that big play gave us a boost.”

Soon on the turnover on downs after a failed fourth-down conversion, Ryan rumbled 49-yards up the middle for the game clincher to put Mt. Greylock up 16-0 with 8:12 left in the fourth quarter.

After a Thomas interception, Ryan added a three-yard touchdown run to put the finishing touches on another Super Bowl season.

Next season, the Mounties will have to replace Ryan with Davion Clement, but will return a core of their offensive and defensive line, with Altiere returning as quarterback.

“I do feel good with that interior line coming back – Brodie has been good at quarterback – Clement as a running back, so we still have some key guys coming back and we will look forward to next year,” Flaherty said.

Posted by Tim Davis on December 6, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry