Wahconah adds Division 2 Super Bowl Championship to resume

FOXBOROUGH – As one of the top two football teams in Berkshire County, the Wahconah Warriors’ dreams shook the Town of Dalton as they hoisted the Western Massachusetts Division 2 trophy overhead at Gillette Stadium last Saturday, with a 24-21 win over South Hadley.

In a tale of two halves, the Warriors withstood the offensive running game of South Hadley as well as an early 14-8 deficit to rally with a late winning touchdown – in the second quarter.

“There is no doubt it was the tale of two halves,” said Warriors Head Coach Gary Campbell Jr. “First half was all about big plays – it was an incredible offensive back and forth show. The second half, we both settled down and we talked about defense; we shored up our adjustments.”

South Hadley opened the scoring when Riley Villenueva had a 30-yard run for a score, before Wahconah answered with its own drive on a quarterback keeper from Lane Grogan, four yards out, to put Wahconah up 8-7 with 4:56 left in the first.

Villenueva answered with a go-ahead score on a three-yard run to put South Hadley back up, 14-8.

Wahconah’s Grogan then found Darrow Brown in the corner of the end zone to put the Warriors back up, 16-14.

Yet South Hadley wasn’t done, they marched right back down the field and scored on a six-yard run by Bryan Shippee.

This time Wahconah was running out of time with the clock down to 10 seconds left in the first half and the ball on the Tigers’ 42-yard line.

“We needed a big play, I was happy to get to the 10- or 20-yard line in hopes of getting a shot at the end zone,” Campbell said. “We spread the field with five wide and we motioned across the field taking the safety – and we sent the tight end up the middle; Lane threw a perfect ball.”

Grogan hit tight end Jordan Fiske, who brought the ball down to the one-yard line with one second left. After a timeout, Ethan Wells punched it in as time expired in the half, to put the Warriors up 24-21.

“We didn’t know it was going to be the winning score at the time,” Campbell said.

The second half was a different story. Wahconah changed around their defensive front, moving a linebacker down to help out with sweeps and runs to the outside. However, the play of the game was made on a pass play, when the Warriors’ Zach Rocca picked off a screen pass to end a late Tigers threat.

The Warriors soon ran out the clock and became Gillette Stadium Super Bowl Champs for Western Massachusetts.

“We adjusted our defensive line – they weren’t running over the tight end – they were running the weak side,” Campbell said.

“We shifted to a head-up philosophy and a two-gap philosophy and shifted our linebacker to the outside,” Campbell added. “We felt that whoever made the first mistake in the second half would be in trouble – and that happened to be them.”

Before the game, Wahconah football boosters wished all the kids good luck on their trip to Foxborough with a caravan of fire trucks and police cars out of town. The support was overwhelming for both players and coaches.

“Everything about it was special,” Campbell said of the experience. “Once we knew we were playing at Gillette, honestly, it was hard to get the kids to concentrate on football.”

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