ORANGE — Jon Gariepy and the Mahar Regional School football team waited all year to celebrate their first victory.
The senior tailback dragged multiple defenders across the goal line for an 11-yard touchdown run with 1 minute, 33 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The late score propelled the Senators to their first win of the season Friday night, a 12-6 win over Franklin tech in an Intercounty League North contest at the Woodward Complex.
“We had heart,” Gariepy said. “We fought until the end. We finally believed and that’s all it took.”
Mahar (1-7 overall, 1-5 IL North) broke through thanks to a stout defensive effort that limited Franklin Tech (2-6, 1-5) to less than four yards per carry and picked off quarterback Ian Bashaw three times.
“All week we told the kids, ‘You’ve been so close,” Mahar coach Jim Woodward said. “I’m so glad for the kids we’ve got out there. I was just hoping we’d be able to survive.”
With the game tied 6-6 late in the fourth quarter, the Mahar defense forced a Franklin Tech put with just under three minutes remaining. Jared Bergmann lined up to kick, but Mahar’s Charlie Barnes broke around the outside and got his hands on the ball for a block. That set up the Senators at the Eagles 20 with 2:49 to play.
“It wasn’t anything special, just (Barnes) off the edge,” Woodward said. “We weren’t going in there trying to block the kick but he had the wherewithal to get in there and get his hands on the ball.”
Mahar needed just three plays to cash in and score the go-ahead touchdown. It was all Gariepy on the ground, as he ripped off runs of 5 and 4 yards, before breaking through with the 11-yard score to put the hosts on top.
“Everyone was jumping around,” said Gariepy, who finished with 136 yards on 25 carries, of his team’s response following Barnes’ block. “My mind just focused on going in there and taking it home with a (touchdown).”
Franklin Tech got into Mahar territory on its final drive, with Bergmann (19 carries, 136 yards) posting runs of 16 and 6 yards that brought the ball to the Mahar 48. But with 1:02 remaining, Bashaw’s pass went off the hands of Hunter Wozniak (two receptions, 79 yards) and was intercepted by Mahar’s Brian Johnson at his own 37.
Mahar took a 6-0 lead just before halftime, when Joey Brozell (8 carries, 28 yards) bulled in from 2 yards out with 47 seconds remaining.
The Eagles tied it on just the second play of the fourth quarter. Bailey Young capped a 16-play, 83-yard drive that lasted almost seven minutes with a 1-yard TD run. That came one play after Bergmann hit Wozniak for a 39-yard pass to get Tech down to the 1.
Mahar held Franklin Tech to just 3 of 10 on third down, while the Senators converted 8 of their 13 third down conversions.