Easthampton beats Belchertown in OT in final game at White Brook Middle School

EASTHAMPTON — Jacob Neumann ensured the White Brook Middle School football field went out a winner.

Easthampton’s junior running back lined up in the Eagles’ Navy formation in the shotgun behind seven offensive linemen ready to take a direct snap. Easthampton and Belchertown were tied in overtime. The Orioles failed to score on four plays from the 10-yard line, so the Eagles received the ball and an opportunity to win with a score. Everyone in the stadium knew where the ball was going. Belchertown still couldn’t stop him.

Neumann ran right initially but saw a cutback lane to the left and bounced that direction. He shook four arm tackles to stride into the end zone for a 38-32 victory Friday.

“I was happy I could do it with all my brothers. These have been my friends since I was 5 years old, and I’ve been playing football with them for 10 years,” Neumann said. “It feels awesome to end on a win on this amazing field that we’d been playing on since we were little.”

Friday was the last game Easthampton will play at White Brook because a new middle school will be constructed where the field now sits. The Eagles have played on the field since the program began in 1998.

“We’ve played on this field for a long, long time,” Easthampton coach Matt Bean said. “It was a fun way to end it.”

Marcus O’Meally started it with a bang. He fumbled the opening kickoff and Belchertown (4-5) gained possession, but the Eagles defense forced a three-and-out to give the ball back to O’Meally. He raced up the left sideline 88 yards for a touchdown 1 minute, 53 seconds into the game.

“It was a great start,” Bean said. “He got discouraged on the fumble, but we kept him positive, and he had a strong game.”

O’Meally and Neumann each ran for 160 yards. The Orioles couldn’t work their ground game, so they took to the air. Cam Otto tied the game with a 42-yard pass to Cal Daskam after a scramble with 7:41 left in the first quarter.

The Eagles (5-4) took the lead, 10-8, on a safety after they blocked a punt 12 seconds into the second quarter. That was the first of the game’s four lead changes.

Easthampton built its advantage with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Neumann from Liam Burke with 56.8 seconds to halftime. But it was too much time for the Orioles’ passing game. Daskam uncorked a 59-yard strike to Hunter Klingensmith (178 yards) on a halfback pass to cut the Eagles’ lead to 2 before halftime.

“We got some speed. I thought we took advantage of it in certain times,” Belchertown coach Ed Wyzik said. “We had to throw some stuff out there we normally don’t run

The Eagles executed a perfect onside kick to gain possession to start the second half, but Belchertown limited them to five plays before a turnover on downs. Three plays later, Otto hit Klingensmith for a 52-yard pass down to Easthampton’s 10. Daskam ran the final 10 yards to put the Orioles up 24-18.

“Our running game wasn’t working well, so we went to the pass,” Wyzik said.

Easthampton held the Orioles to 44 yards on the ground, but Belchertown finished with 283 yards passing between Daskam and Otto combined.

The Eagles responded with a heavy dose of Neumann. He carried the ball four times on the next drive, including a 6-yard score to go back up 26-24 on a Bennett Kelly (32 yards) two-point run.

“That was the plan,” Bean said. “He runs hard and we knew we could count on him no matter what.”

The teams exchanged turnovers on downs for the next three possessions, until Otto hit Klingensmith for 67 yards to the Easthampton 9 midway through the fourth quarter. After a hard count drew the Eagles offsides, Otto powered into the end zone behind Belchertown’s line for a 32-26 lead with 6:20 left.

“A lot of it we did to ourselves,” Bean said. “We gave up three big pass plays on third-and-long where we had blown coverages.”

Then Easthampton gave the ball right back to Neumann. He carried it five out of six times on the next drive and tied the game with a 1-yard run out of the Navy formation with 3:22 remaining.

“That’s definitely one of my favorite positions,” Neumann said. “Our line can make a huge hole for us, and we always get positive yards on that.”

A two-point conversion would have given the Eagles the lead, but Neumann’s pass was intercepted.

The Eagles forced a three-and-out and got the ball with 1:40 left. They drove into the red zone, but Sam Winston intercepted Burke at the 10 with 31.4 seconds left and returned it to the 44. Instead of taking a shot for the end zone and the win, Belchertown opted to kneel down and go to overtime.

“You take a shot and if it’s intercepted they can run it all the way back and score and there’s no overtime,” Wyzik said. “You take a knee then you go to overtime and you take your chances. It’s four chances as opposed to one chance with an interception.”

In overtime each team receives the ball at the 10-yard line and has four plays to score. If the score is still tied after both teams possess the ball, the order switches and they go again.

The Orioles had the ball first. Daskam lost 20 yards on two runs, then Otto threw an incompletion. On fourth down from the 35, Otto dropped back but couldn’t find anyone and scrambled up the sideline. He was forced out at the 9 to give the ball to Easthampton.

“We knew what they were going to run, so we locked it down,” Neumann said.

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.

Easthampton 38, Belchertown 32

First quarter

E—Marcus O’Meally 88 run (Jacob Neumann run), 10:07.

B—Cal Daskam 42 pass from Cam Otto (Daskam run), 7:41.

Second quarter

E—Safety, 11:48.

E—Neumann 20 pass from Liam Burke (Bennett Kelly run), 56.8.

B—Hunter Klingensmith 59 pass from Daskam, 34.1.

Third quarter

B—Daskam 10 run (Daskam run), 7:43.

E—Neumann 6 run (Kelly run), 4:45.

Fourth quarter

B—Otto 4 run (Daskam run), 6:20.

E—Neumann 1 run (Pass failed), 3:22.

Overtime

E—Neumann 10 run, 0:00.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Easthampton–Neumann 21-160, O’Meally 12-160, Kelly 9-32, Keith Cudworth 3-1, Burke 4-(-12). Belchertown-Otto 6-18, Daskam 10-9, Sam Winston 4-10, Jay Fuentes 2-4, Mathew Czupryna 1-3.

PASSING—Easthampton–Liam Burke 4-16-50-1, Neumann 1-1-14-0. Belchertown–Otto 9-23-212, Daskam 2-3-71-0.

RECEIVING—Easthampton–Neumann 2-34, Nathan Hogan 2-16, Connor Mott 1-14. Belchertown-Klingensmith 3-178, Daskam 6-81, Czupryna 1-12, Otto 1-12.