HOLDEN — It was “Neon Night” in The Badlands, and the Wachusett Regional student section was lit up after the Mountaineers pulled within three points of Franklin with 9:06 to play.
But the Panthers responded to the scoring runs of seniors Tucker McDonald (touchdown) and Aidan McGeary (conversion), twice converting on third down during a 10-play TD drive that consumed nearly six minutes to secure a 32-22 win Sept. 9 before a large crowd at Hal Lane Field.
“You don’t play in the state semifinals (last season) and return a host of starters and not be a good team,” Wachusett coach Mike Dubzinski said of Franklin following the season opener for these Division 1 powers.
“Obviously, I’m not happy. I’m happy with the effort, but I’m not happy with the outcome. But the kids will get some rest and we’ll go back to work.”
The Mountaineers got off to a terrific start, reaching the end zone on their first and third drives with the 6-foot-1, 200-pound McGeary scoring on runs of 3 and 4 yards and Ben Dominick adding the extra points to take a 14-7 lead into the second quarter.
McDonald was 5-of-6 passing for 61 yards, including first-down strikes of 29 and 19 yards to senior wideout Matt Raeke, to open the game. But the UConn commit was 5 of 22 for 21 yards and one first down with three interceptions the rest of the way.
The Panthers applied some serious pocket pressure, particularly with their interior rush, from the opening snap as they battered, banged and pounded Mc-Donald, who was visibly exhausted following the physical and penalty-filled proceedings.
“They were bringing more guys than we could block,” McDonald said. “They have some really athletic down linemen, some really athletic linebackers. We have stuff to work on up front, but I was pretty pleased with our overall effort.”
He then added: “They pretty much took away our pass game.”
The Mountaineers had success running the ball, with McGeary finishing with 40 yards, the aforementioned two TDs and three additional first downs on seven carries, while McDonald dashed his way to 138 yards on nine carries, highlighted by a pair of amazing jaunts of 59 and 40 yards in the second half.
But passing remained the priority. “That’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to try to play fast,” Dubzinski said. “We had some running plays tonight. McGeary ran hard, I thought (Cole) Carelli made a couple of good runs, we just have to execute better.
“What were we, 10 of 28 (passing)? Completing10 passes, we’re not going to win. So we’ll go back to work and get better. That’s all we can do.”
As for the Panthers, they were consistently able to get their plethora of playmakers into open space, no one more so than the speedy and elusive Luke Davis.
The 6-foot, 180-pound senior receiver made six receptions for 164 yards, including catch-and-run scores of 52 and 62 yards and a leaping grab of 28 yards in the end zone on which the defender was flagged for pass interference.
“I thought we did a nice job of getting Luke Davis in some different looks,” Franklin coach Eian Bain said. “Not just in the same spot all the time, and giving our quarterback some different angles to throw the football from.”
The quarterback would be senior Jose Lyons, who was 13 of 16 for 267 yards and three TDs along with four additional first downs. He was intercepted twice, by junior Grayson Baker and McGeary, and sacked twice, by senior Joe Cappabianca and junior Chris Smith.
The pass game was complemented by junior Michael Davide, who raced and juked his way to 100 yards and the game-clinching, 3-yard TD run with 2:59 to play, on 17 carries.
“They’re so big up front, so what we were trying to do was manipulate numbers in the box,” Bain said. “And if they pulled a guy in the box, try to get it out in space. If they had guys out in space, get it in the box.”
The Mountaineers will continue their season-opening, four-game home stand when they face Fitchburg (0-1) at 7 p.m. Sept. 16.
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@
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