Belchertown football stays undefeated with 18-12 win over Monument

BELCHERTOWN — It wasn’t pretty, but the Belchertown football team moved to 4-0 following Friday’s 18-12 win against Monument Mountain.

The Orioles scored all three of their touchdowns in the first half, but nearly let the Spartans force overtime as the visitors were in Belchertown territory with an opportunity to even the score with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.

However, the Orioles defense stepped up with a critical stop on a Monument fourth-down try with one minute, six seconds left, preserving its perfect record.

“That was a physical game,” Belchertown head coach Keith LeBeau said. “We got out of the chute pretty good. We made a lot of mistakes early on. Those mistakes we made were not usual for us. That play just before halftime where they got that touchdown, that got them momentum and we just never got it back. Our defense stepped up and played hard.”

The Spartans score LeBeau referenced occurred with 13 seconds to go in the first half. Monument quarterback Dominic Calautti hit receiver James Green for a 62-yard reception touchdown, highlighting the pair’s prominence in the defeat. Calautti and Green connected for several long-distance snags throughout the course of the contest, with the first putting the Spartans on the board, 18-6.

“Dom’s got a great arm, we just got to be more consistent catching the ball,” Spartans head coach Chris Tucci said. “This is the third game in the row we’ve watched balls bounce off of chests, hands, face masks and it’s unacceptable. The work that he’s doing demands the requisite hard work on our receivers and we just haven’t matched his talent yet.”

Calautti doubled Monument’s point total with a beautiful floater to the left side of the end zone with 5:33 remaining during the fourth quarter, that was hauled-in by Kameron Boino, to make it a one-score game at 18-12.

Belchertown got the ball back and worked down-field, mostly with lengthy runs, however penalties and some key snuff-outs from the Spartans defense limited the Orioles to a 27-yard field-goal attempt.

Monument blocked the try and got the ball back in its own zone with about a minute to work with. The Spartans moved the chains with numerous catches along the left side line, but in the end, their fortune ran out when Calautti was pressured into heaving a hope-pass that was not caught, giving the ball back to the hosts.

“It was great to see them fight through it,” Tucci said. “We’ve been working to face adversity and to work through that adversity, so I’m happy to see the players taking that to heart the way that they fought through that. It’s not the ending that they had hoped for, but the fight that they put in there is something that we can build on.”

Ethan Longley found the end zone twice for the Orioles with a couple of scores on the ground. The first counted as the opening TD of the game as Longley took the snap directly to the house for a 22-yard touchdown and a 6-0 Belchertown advantage.

During the second quarter, Longley struck again, this time on a 22-yard rush that saw the sophomore weave around multiple Monument defenders before crossing the goal line with 5:16 showing on the clock.

“He’s our hard runner and Avery [Cote] is our quick guy on that side, so teams have to struggle against both of that,” LeBeau said. “Ethan will always run hard. It takes more than one guy to bring him down.”

Ahead 12-0 during the second quarter, the Orioles appeared to have delivered a knock-out punch with a last-minute, 20-yard running touchdown from Cote to extend their lead to 18-0.

But Green’s huge catch during the final seconds of the first half kick-started a comeback for the Spartans that put quite the scare into Belchertown, which celebrated its seniors prior to kickoff.

“We threw everything we had at them, and they did the same to us, and I was very happy to come out with the win, I couldn’t be more excited for the kids,” LeBeau said.

The victory signaled the Orioles’ first in the Tri-County league as their first three wins were non-league games.

Belchertown (4-0) will try to pick up its fifth consecutive ‘W’ on the road next Friday, Oct. 10 at Smith Voc.

OTHER AREA FOOTBALL SCORES

Northampton 36, Ludlow 29 

Agawam 18, Amherst 14

Frontier 50, Commerce 8