ATHOL — The Athol football team has done everything it can to try to get into the MIAA Division 8 playoffs.
Heading into Friday’s game against Greenfield, the Bears held the No. 16 ranking, the final spot in the field. Taking on the Green Wave, Athol knew it had to come away with a victory by 14 points or more — the maximum difference that counts toward point differential — to put itself in the best position possible and it did just that.
The Bears roared out to a 12-0 lead following touchdowns on their opening two drives and didn’t look back, pulling away with a 33-12 Intercounty League North victory at O’Brien Field to close out the regular season.
“In the end you hope you did enough,” Athol coach Josh Talbot said. “You hope a point here or there in a game isn’t the difference. That’s the wild thing in this format. You only win a game by 10 and it punishes you. We put aside that three-game skid earlier in the year where we had some tight losses, we battled and talked about taking care of our business tonight. We got the 14 point [win] so whatever happens, happens.”
For Greenfield, the regular season comes to a close with a 2-6 record overall and a 1-4 record in the Intercounty League North. The Wave will get a non-playoff assignment Sunday for next week.
“I’m proud of our kids,” Green Wave coach Mike Kuchieski said. “They played hard. They played against a good football team and they did what we tried to do.”
The Bears (5-3, 3-2) have been waiting all season for a fast start and got one on Friday.
Athol got the ball to open the game and went on a nine play drive that ended with Sawyer Lefsyk barreling in from 1 yard out to give the Bears a 6-0 lead with 7:20 to play in the opening quarter. The Bears got down to the goal line on a 24-yard run by Dom Curtis.
Athol’s defense forced a three-and-out on Greenfield’s first possession and took over on its 33 following the punt.
Aidan Melanson hit Hayden Barrrieau in the flat and the junior rumbled for 36 yards on the first play of the drive. Melanson then connected with Barrieau and Andrew Fitzpatrick for first downs before Curtis took a quarterback sneak in from the 2 to give the Bears a 12-0 lead with 2:17 to go in the first quarter.
“We haven’t started fast all year,” Talbot said. “It was awkwardly quiet before the game. We debriefed and realized our kids were tense, not unmotivated. We talked about loosing up, having some fun with it and channeling those Senior Night emotions. It worked. We started fast and that’s something we wanted to do.”
The Athol defense was lights out for the remainder of the half, not allowing the Greenfield offense to pick up a first down and often driving play backward, with the Green Wave held to minus-30 yards in the opening 24 minutes of action.
Conversely, the Greenfield defense settled in after the opening two scores and forced a pair of turnover on downs and a punt to close out the half.
The Green Wave got a spark to open the second half.
The ball was kicked off to Angel Politis, and the sophomore evaded a defender and used his speed to race in untouched from 70 yards out to cut the lead to 12-6.
Athol responded quickly. The Bears got the ball back at their own 42 following the kickoff, ran for a pair of first downs before Lefsyk took a carry off the left tackle and got to the pylon for a 23-yards score, with Melanson finding Barrieau for the two-point try to give the Bears a 20-6 lead with 6:52 to go in the third.
Logan Cormier picked off a Keagan Fisher pass on the ensuing Greenfield possession and Athol went back to its run game, with Lefsyk breaking off a 29-yard run down to the Green Wave 6 and Barrieau taking a fullback dive up the middle and pulling the pile across the goal line. Bernie LeBlanc’s extra point put the Bears ahead, 27-6, with 13 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Greenfield looked to strike early in the fourth, with Fisher throwing a bomb to Erik Martineau for a 44-yard gainer to the Athol 14. The Green Wave fumbled the snap on the next play and the Bears recovered.
Athol punted on its next possession and Martineau returned it to the Bears 19. Four plays later, on a fourth-and-11, Fisher rolled to his left, couldn’t find anyone open and took it himself, tight-roped the sideline and reaching the end zone from 20 yards out to cut the lead to 27-12 with 5:43 to play.
Athol once again went to its ground game to run the clock out, with Lefsyk running it in from 17 yards out with 31 seconds to go to put the game away.
Lefsyk finished with 150 yards on the ground while Barrieau added 75 yards rushing in the win.
“We wanted to run the ball tonight,” Talbot said. “We were convinced we’d be able to run the ball and we did. We did it in a couple of different ways than how we’ve had success in the past. We felt good about our ability to run the ball and we did.”
Now the Bears await their postseason hopes. Talbot said he likes his teams chance of making the dance.
“We feel like we have a good chance of getting in the playoffs,” Talbot said. “It’s been a while since our school has been there. We hope it works out for us.”