By TOM KING WILBRAHAM – Missing a handful of key players due to injury, Wilbraham & Monson Academy hung tough in a showdown with the Williston Northampton School before being worn down by a physical front line and falling, 41-26, Saturday. Eight players carried the ball for Williston, racking up 252 rushing yards and averaging nearly 8 yards per...
By TOM KING
WILBRAHAM – Missing a handful of key players due to injury, Wilbraham & Monson Academy hung tough in a showdown with the Williston Northampton School before being worn down by a physical front line and falling, 41-26, Saturday.
Eight players carried the ball for Williston, racking up 252 rushing yards and averaging nearly 8 yards per carry. Senior running back Jordan Keliinui led the way with 10 carries for 96 yards and a touchdown, while senior Nicholas Kioussis added touchdown runs of 25 yards and 4 yards.
Williston allowed WMA back into the Parents Weekend game with 10 penalties and four turnovers, but each time WMA made a big play, the Wildcats responded in kind.
Perhaps the biggest play of the Colonial League contest came just after WMA scored its first touchdown, cutting the Williston lead to 14-7. WMA postgraduate quarterback Kenneth Goodnow threw a 20-yard touchdown to postgraduate Matt Grospitch with 1:26 remaining in the first half.
Goodnow completed 10 of 22 passes for 126 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. He also intercepted a pass in the end zone to thwart a Williston drive in the second half, only a week after he began playing defense due to Titan injuries.
“As battered as our quarterback was, he didn’t want to come out,” WMA coach Jeff Vartabedian said. “He played a ton of defense and played great. He’s a tough kid.”
On the following kickoff, however, WMA kicked deep for the first time, and Williston junior quarterback Ledell Robinson made the Titans pay dearly for the mistake. Robinson caught the ball over his shoulder at the 3-yard line, and darted 97 yards down the Williston sideline, following a wall of blockers into the end zone with 1:09 left in the half.
“When I came up, I saw the left side was wide open,” Robinson said, “so I tried to cut up the middle and then bounce it outside. My blockers did the rest.”
A penalty-laden third quarter slowed the action considerably, but after three consecutive drives ended in turnovers, Williston blocked a WMA punt deep in Titan territory and junior quarterback Gabriel Archambault snuck in from 1-yard to open the fourth quarter and take a 34-14 lead.
On offense, WMA relied heavily on junior running back Shacor Privott, who carried 14 times for 108 yards and also caught a screen pass for a 52-yard score early in the third quarter. Fellow junior running back Shawn Boston from Springfield also ran for 73 yards and two touchdowns.
WMA has a much-needed bye week before hosting Gunnery Nov. 3 in its first ever night game. Williston hosts Suffield Academy next Saturday.