Football: Fast start leads Monument Mountain to 48-20 triumph over Easthampton

Easthampton’s Dylan McGinn-Stevens is met by Monument Mountain’s Griffin Touponce during the Eagles’ 46-20 loss in Great Barrington Friday night.

Easthampton’s Dylan McGinn-Stevens is met by Monument Mountain’s Griffin Touponce during the Eagles’ 46-20 loss in Great Barrington Friday night. MIKE HERMAN/BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Monument Mountain's Isaiah Keefner runs while Easthampton's Louise Salgado tries to make the tackle in Great Barrington Friday.

Monument Mountain's Isaiah Keefner runs while Easthampton's Louise Salgado tries to make the tackle in Great Barrington Friday. MIKE HERMAN/BERKSHIRE EAGLE

By HOWARD HERMAN

For the Gazette

Published: 09-20-2024 11:34 PM

GREAT BARRINGTON — Twelve months ago, the Easthampton football team put a hurting on Monument Mountain.

Friday night out in The Berkshires, Monument turned things around in a big way.

The Spartans, who lost their season opener seven days ago at Lee, scored touchdowns the first four times they had the ball in a more-than-decisive 48-20 win over Easthampton. The fourth quarter was running time due to the score.

"They're playing with a lot more physicality and they seem a lot more mature. We just came out flat-footed the whole game," Easthampton coach Kyle Dragon said, thinking back to last year. "We just didn't play our brand of football."

Senior running back Shaun Frank set the tone for the Spartans, carring the ball on all four plays of the first Monument offensive series. Frank capped the short-field drive off with a 14-yard touchdown run, and the Spartans sailed from there.

Frank had 161 yards rushing on 24 carries for five touchdowns. He had no carries for negative yards. Frank went over the 100-yard mark on the second carry of the third quarter when he took a pitch from quarterback Dominic Calautti and went around the left side for five yards.

"They came out strong. They came out fast. They came out ready to play hard," Monument coach Chris Tucci said of his squad. "I'm really proud of the work they did this week.

"All the money they put in the bank this week in practice paid off today."

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The Spartans ran 31 offensive plays to 13 for the visiting Eagles in the first half, and outgained the visitors 220 yards to 49.

“It did, absolutely,” said Dragon, when asked about Frank’s success running the ball and if it caused the Eagles defense problems. “They were very sound with how they ran the ball inside and outside. Everywhere they went with the ball, he was just all over the field for them and they ran an option a few times that we just missed tackles on.”

Easthampton won the toss and elected to receive. The Eagles stalled on their first drive, with a couple of false starts penalties thrown in for good measure. a 28-yard punt was returned 17 yards by Griffin Touponce, setting the Spartans up on the Easthampton 22.

Frank ran for 5, 10 and four yards and his 5-yard touchdown run was erased thanks to a holding penalty. That only kept Frank out of the end zone for one play, as he ran around end for a 14-yard touchdown run. Isaiah Keefner, who caught his first career touchdown pass in the third quarter, ran the ball in for a 2-point conversion.

Another 3-and-out led to another quick score. This time, Monument's Thomas Brown got in untouched and blocked a punt. The Spartans recovered on the Easthampton 12. After Eriel Dominguez ran for eight, Frank was stuffed at the line. But on third down, he took a Calautti pitch and scampered four yards for his second TD. Kamren Boino's conversion run made it 16-0.

"That's Shaun Frank. There's no question what powers the engine," Tucci said. "Shaun Frank put everybody on our shoulders. But really, extraordinary blocking by Eriel Dominguez on the outside, Kam Boino on the outside. Griffin Touponce, not only does he catch the slants through contact and taking it to the house, but textbook blocking on the outside. You can't ask for more from a receiver."

On the second play of the second quarter, Touponce got in the end zone when he ran a post pattern, caught a Calautti pass in stride, ran over cornerback Trevor Canon-Smith and made it into the end zone for a touchdown that made it 22-0, and the Spartans were in full control.

The Eagles got on the scoreboard with 4:46 left in the first half as quarterback Colin Hogan, who was under a lot of pressure all night, hit Trevor Canon-Smith on a 15-yard TD pass. The halftime score was 30-8.

The teams traded touchdowns from there, including a 47-yard run by Frank to close out the Monument scoring.