CHESHIRE — After a first quarter marked by penalties and poor blocking, Hoosac Valley got on the board thanks to a 21-yard touchdown run from Kadan Tatro and a 2-point conversion plunge from Griffin Mucci.

Mucci went to kick off to Frontier, with the goal of avoiding dangerous Redhawk returners. He hit a perfect onside kick, the ball arcing high and short and Jayquan Vazquez screaming right through the first row of Frontier special teamers to recover the ball for Hoosac.

It fired up the Hoosac sideline, although like BigFoot, whether or not it was supposed to be an onside kick as opposed to just a pooch, will never be known. 

What is known is that soon after Mucci ran for a 28-yard score and Hoosac’s defense dominated in the second half in a 22-7 win to improve to 6-0 on the year.

“Feels great, I think it’s a great achievement from last year and I’m just proud of all the guys and how far they’ve come,” Mucci, who had a fumble late in the game but played like a man possessed afterwards, saying. “That fumble, it really touched me and it made me want to whack them right in the mouth. And I did.” 

Hoosac was determined to run the ball and Frontier was determined to stop it. Penalties hurt Hoosac on its first couple drives but the Redhawk front seven did excellent work to stop sweeps and power runs for Tatro, one of the staples of Hoosac’s offense.

Frontier (2-4, 0-3) forced nine runs of negative yards with Levi Pickert, Kaden James, Edward Mieczkowski, Alex Schreiber and Collin West all notching solo tackles-for-loss. 

But the Hurricanes didn’t let the tough sledding stop them. They pounded the ball between the tackles before calling an outside run to try and catch Frontier off guard. Mucci had a few runs up the gut to start the game which set Tatro up for a 33-yard rip along the sideline. 

The duo combined for 194 yards and three touchdowns, the third and final coming in the third quarter. Frontier started the second half with the ball but went for it on fourth-and-three and Jo Campbell seemingly materialized through the offensive line to tackle the back for a huge loss and force a turnover on downs.

Starting with the ball at their own 46-yard line, the ‘Canes grinded down the third quarter clock, going on a 12-play drive that included just one throw. Culminating in three straight runs from Mucci for three, two and then a 1-yard touchdown dive to put the game away. He’d walk in the ensuing conversion. 

“It’s amazing, we’re gonna keep feeding [Mucci and Tatro] the ball and then we’re gonna try and get the ball in the air a little bit more. As we’re moving forward and those opportunities present themselves,” said Hoosac head coach Mike Bostwick. “Feels great, step six, feels amazing, we’ll take it, wasn’t my most favorite win but it was a decent win.” 

Frontier made it close at the end of the second quarter. Hoosac kicked the ball off after its second touchdown and the high kick was fair caught, but Schreiber was hit anyway which tacked on another 15 yards to give the visitors a first down at the Hoosac 43-yard line. 

A couple of runs got it to the Hoosac 30 before Dredge connected with Ian Burt for a 12-yard first down. A run followed but then Frontier hurried to the ball and spiked it, making it third-and-eight with 1:35 left.

Mieczkowski ran for nine yards to give the Redhawks a first down at the three. Vazquez and Mucci combined for a TFL to push it back to the six but Frontier, which had run the option with success earlier, showed a heavy look and rolled out like it would be an option run. 

Hoosac bit, Burt leaked into the endzone and Dredge tossed him the ball for a 6-yard touchdown pass and Frontier’s lone score of the game. 

“They were chunking yards on us and they’re really good on ball and clock control. We didn’t have much for opportunities to get the ball back and that was my biggest worry,” Frontier coach Scott Dredge said. “I’m not disappointed in our team. We gameplaned for them, our DLine stepped up. I thought we did cover the field pretty well.”

Hoosac’s defense had plenty of big plays and covered the field well, too. Adan Wicks had an interception early on while Isaac Campbell made a big pass breakup late and had a half TFL. Ben Payton had a fumble recovery, while Vazquez had 2.5 TFLs. Tatro and Matt Witek combined for a TFL with Tatro adding a sack on Frontier’s last drive. 

“I was really psyched about the defense, they put up 35-points last week. They had 16 to 20 different formations, this is a well-coached team, they do a lot of different things on offense. I think we were just well-prepared,” said Bostwick.