SOUTH DEERFIELD - The Frontier Regional defense helped set up two touchdowns and scored a third to lead the Red Hawks to a 21-6 victory over Sci-Tech in an Intercounty League battle on Friday night.

The Red Hawks' defense made things difficult for the CyberCats all game, allowing only seven first downs through the first three quarters, and giving up only 182 total yards to a dangerous Sci-Tech attack.

The Hawks (8-1 overall, 5-1) nearly pitched their third shutout of the season but had to settle for allowing just the six points when CyberCat running back/quarterback Tyrone Wiggins ran in a 1-yard score with 38.6 seconds left in the game.

So dominant was the Hawks' defense that Sci-Tech, down only 7-0 at the break, completely abandoned the running game in the second half. After gaining only 31 rushing yards on 15 carries in the first half, Sci-Tech ran the ball only seven times (including three sacks) in the second half for minus-8 yards.

"This is exactly where we need to be defensively coming into the home stretch here," Frontier coach Scott Dredge said of a unit that has now allowed only one touchdown in each of its last three games. "I love the field position that we had because of their aggressiveness and I'm glad we were able to capitalize on that."

In Frontier's late-game win over Greenfield last week, the Hawks were unable to take advantage of some of the early opportunities created by its defense in holding the Wave's offense to three-and-outs.

Things started out the same way for Frontier on Friday night, when the Hawk defense recovered a fumble on Sci-Tech's second play of the game, setting up the offense on the CyberCat 46-yard line. Three plays later Frontier was in a fourth-and-10 and was forced to punt the ball. That squander seemed to wake up the Red Hawk offense.

The game's first touchdown came after the defense forced Sci-Tech to punt from its own 27, letting the Frontier offense take over at the CyberCat 43 after a 14-yard return by Austin Watroba.

The scoring drive took only four plays as Abramson ran for eight yards, followed by back-to-back runs by Watroba (20 carries, 82 yards) of eight and 11 yards and a touchdown run by Abramson of 16 yards to put the Hawks on top 7-0 with 2 minutes, 50 seconds left in the first quarter.

"We've been stressing in practice that we really wanted to get the first score," said Hawk quarterback Erik Abramson, who finished 5-for-7 for 46 yards passing and added another 40 yards rushing. "We feel like we haven't come out in enough games and gotten that first score. We wanted to set the tone so it was really big for us to get that first touchdown."

Frontier held its one-touchdown lead until 2:58 remained in the third quarter.

After a three-and-out by the CyberCats, Kelly Dobbins Jr. hit a high punt from his own 15 that traveled only 20 yards and bounced back to the 26, giving the Hawks possession deep in CyberCat territory. Frontier moved the ball down to the 14, and on second-and-nine, Abramson found Brad Bean with a bullet over the middle for the second touchdown of the game and a 14-0 lead.

Nick Pickunka sealed the win with 3:16 left in the fourth quarter when he found himself in the way of a Sam Blake pass and returned it 37 yards for a 21-0 lead.

"It felt real big," Pickunka said of the pick. "I read the quarterback, the ball came my way, and I just went to the end zone."

Blake finished the game 11-for-27 passing for 130 yards and the interception. Wiggins led the CyberCat running attack with 30 yards on 13 carries.