CHESHIRE — It took just four plays for Hoosac Valley to score – a 39-yard run from Kadan Tatro.

The third-seeded Hurricanes dominated early in the game Saturday and then made enough plays on defense in the second half, holding off a late rally attempt to beat No. 14 Athol, 34-18, and advance to the quarterfinal round of the MIAA Division 8 state tournament.

“I thought that was huge. I thought the defense really played well and made up for the offense in a lot of ways today. Hats off to the defense, hats off to [Athol], the looks that they give,” said Hoosac head coach Mike Bostwick. “It’s key, they get you in a misalignment, and they expose us and we got better as the game went on and we just couldn’t make some plays late against these guys that we need to correct.” 

The Hurricanes were firing early on. After scoring, the Hoosac defense forced a three-and-out and Athol attempted a punt. The snap was high and punter Ethan Goodwin could only fall on the ball at his own 7.

A couple of plays later, Griffin Mucci punched in the score and the two-point conversion for a 14-0 lead. 

“We had a pretty good plan coming in,” Athol coach Josh Talbot said. “Made the wrong call like three times on the opening drive, just nerves. Nervous energy. Our guys work hard, we got a physical group. Got some big boys up front.”

The Bears managed to get a couple of first downs on their next drive. But on third-and-10, Aidan Melanson hung up a pass that Qwanell Bradley picked off. But Athol’s defense held strong.

Athol couldn’t advance the ball on the ensuing possession, and another bad snap on a punt led to more Hoosac Valley points. The ball went over Goodwin’s head again, and he was tackled in his own end zone for a safety to make it 16-0.

“It’s huge, we felt like we had the momentum, we felt like we were losing it a bit. We’re scoring and it just keeps you slightly above that,” Bostwick said. “Keeps you more level where they’re making big plays but we have some level of control of this game.”

The Hurricanes added to their lead just before halftime, when quarterback Kamarion Kastner scored on a 1-yard sneak with 15.8 seconds left for a 22-0 Hoosac lead. 

The Canes got a quick start in the second half, too. Athol took the ball at its own 10 yard line, and on the very first play from scrimmage, Melanson fumbled the ball and it was jumped on by Logan O’Connell for a touchdown and a 28-0 lead.

Athol finally got on the board when Melanson dumped the ball off to Barrieau, who took advantage of bad Hoosac tackling and weaved his way for 41-yards and a first down. Then Barrieau hit a 32-yard run to get Athol into the red zone. 

Later in the drive, Dominic Curtis hit Aaron Ouellet in the corner of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown to make it a 28-6 game.

“It’s hard, you don’t see [Athol] play, you don’t play like opponents. We anticipated [the passing game], but at the same time, we were there to make the plays. We just have to make the plays. One time [Ouellet] ran by us so we just need to make the plays,” said Bostwick. “We need to be slightly better positioned and we’ll get better at that.”

Hoosac scored on its next possession. Tatro had a 28-yard burst and then runs of 14 and 11 before a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 34-6. 

But Athol wasn’t done. The Bears took advantage of some slips in discipline by Hoosac when the ball was in the air. Ouellet had no catches in the first half but got behind the defense for two touchdowns after intermission. He finished with 117 yards and two scores, keying the Bears’ second-half surge that saw it cut the deficit to 34-18 with four minutes left. Raydin Sousa also hauled in a 56-yard TD late that made it a two-score game, and Athol held the ball again late at the Hoosac 13-yard line. 

“[Ouellet’s] a gamer. To be honest he didn't have the best week of practice and we were on him. Good to see him show up today,” said Talbot. “Worked super hard all summer long on his ball skills. Was a stud in 7-on-7, stud at the start of the year. Teams started to give him more attention. We started to throw to [Sousa] a little bit more and [Ouellet] was a dog today.”

Hoosac’s defensive line brought pressure on fourth down and its secondary did the rest, forcing an incompletion and giving the Hurricanes the ball back. The hosts were able to run the clock out from there.

“I’d like to have played the first half better. My kids are dogs, they want to work, they weren’t going to go down without a fight. Hoosac is a good football team and with five minutes to go, we had them reeling,” said Talbot. “Just really proud of the effort they put on in the second half. Some nerves, energy, panicking a little to start the game. We’re all juniors and sophomores, first time for them to be in a big game in any sport, really.

“For them to battle all the way to the end, just really, really proud of them.”

Melanson racked up 205 yards through the air and two TDs, while Sawyer Lefsyk totaled 39 yards rushing on nine carries.

As the No. 3 seed, Hoosac will be at home again next Saturday. No. 6 Old Colony RVT, which beat No. 11 Narragansett 28-6 in the first round, will make the trip to Cheshire for the second round contest at 12:30 p.m.