The Amherst Regional football team stuck to the script in Friday night’s 22-0 win over Route 9 rival Belchertown.
When the host Hurricanes (1-1) failed to generate offense through the bulk of the first half at Community Field — 22 yards over two series — it was their defense that gave them some momentum. Freshman Landon Worgess stripped Orioles quarterback John Flink on third down to give the ball back to Amherst in Belchertown territory with 6½ minutes to go in the first half.
After committing penalties on six of their previous eight offensive plays, the Hurricanes strung together 42 yards on seven plays, capped off by a Joshua Vecchio 2-yard touchdown run to break a scoreless tie. Quarterback JB Mills’ pass to Steven Steele for the 2-point conversion gave Amherst an 8-0 lead it never relinquished.
The Hurricane defense proved their worth again on the following possession, keeping Belchertown out of the end zone to close out the half with a JJ Block sack of Flink, and Isaiah Moyston’s intercepted as time expired on the second quarter.
“They’re driving down, they need to score, and (Moyston) comes up with a pick. It’s great,” Amherst coach Chris Ehorn Jr. said. “That’s what we were talking about all week. We need to create more turnovers to keep that momentum.”
The Orioles had a chance to even the score after Mills fumbled on the Hurricanes’ first drive of the second half, and Matt Czupryna picked him off a series later, but a pair of three-and-outs gave Amherst the ball back inside the Belchertown 30-yard line. Dan Block finished off a three-play, 28-yard touchdown drive with a 12-yard rush, and a successful 2-point try gave the Hurricanes a 16-0 lead on the final play of the third quarter.
The Amherst rushing attack accounted for 215 of the Hurricanes’ 269-yard offensive output, with Block rushing for 137 yards and Vecchio 89. Dan Block broke a 60-yard touchdown in the final quarter two plays after CJ Woodfine-Holmes came up with an interception.
“We have a tough front line and we want to run behind those guys, and we know sometimes it takes a while to wear down a defense — that’s a good defense,” Ehron said. “Our running backs are tough guys, our line is tough, so it was nice to see that.”
Fatigue did set in for the Orioles.
“When we got tired, that’s when they started running the ball,” Belchertown coach Ed Wyzik said. “Offensively, up front there, in the first half they really didn’t do anything. There’s nothing that we didn’t go over at practice, so we knew what they were doing. But we got tired and banged up by the second half.”
The Orioles failed to answer Amherst’s offensive production in the second half, gaining just 3 yards on their two offensive series in the third quarter.
“We needed to pound the ball a little bit more,” Wyzik said. “Turnovers always change the game. They had a lot of penalties and we should have capitalized on those penalties. We didn’t. We’ve got a young line and they’re getting better as the weeks go on.”
The Hurricanes rebounded from their 28-14 opening loss to Northampton.
“Belchertown is a good team. We want to beat good teams,” Ehorn said. “We’re just happy to get the first win of the season. We had a sour taste in our mouth last week, so we were happy to get that win.”
Amherst heads to Drury next week, while Belchertown looks to rebound at home against Mount Greylock.