NORTHAMPTON — Smith Vocational sophomore Jameson Tobin saw the coverage and decided to change his route at the last moment. Meanwhile, senior quarterback Ty Chapdelaine rolled out and waited for the play to develop for his wide receiver.

The result was a 5-yard go-ahead touchdown with a minute remaining. Ludlow put a scare into the Vikings, but John Majewski intercepted a pass with 34 seconds left to seal a 20-14 victory, Friday night in their home opener.

“Jamie Tobin might be the most instinctual football player I’ve every had the pleasure of coaching,” Smith Vocational coach Alex Subocz said. “There are times where I will tell him to do something, and he ignores me and he puts himself in the right spot. He sees things developing before anyone else does.”

Chapdelaine’s two completions both went to Tobin, and both were for touchdowns. The last pass came in dramatic fashion. Facing fourth and short at the 5, Chapdelaine was in shotgun with Tobin spread wide just outside the hash marks.

“We’re a team that adopts on the fly,” Chapdelaine said. “Jamie made a good choice to cut it out last second and I just saw him.”

Tobin cut inside but changed direction and turned for the corner. With that side of the field open, Chapdelaine put the pass wide and Tobin beat the corner by two steps with 1:06 left.

“I knew I’d be open, and I knew he’d find me,” Tobin said. 

Brayden LaRose added the conversion run for the Vikings (1-1), who held the Lions (0-2) scoreless in the second half.

“The kids played with so much energy and passion,” Subocz said. “We kept going at Ludlow and Ludlow kept coming at us.”

Smith Vocational held Ludlow’s running game in check after halftime and forced critical turnovers on Ludlow’s final three possessions. LaRose (eight carries, 71 yards) had an interception to keep the Vikings alive with 4:36 left. A botched punt gave Smith possession in the red zone on its go-ahead score. Majewski ended the game with his pick.

Just prior to the final interception, LaRose made a game-saving tackle in the open field following a 30-yard completion by Ludlow quarterback Mason Morace.

“There were a decent amount of mistakes; definitely threw us off the rails,” LaRose said. “We got back on track towards the end and the defense saved us a lot.”

Ludlow finished with four turnovers, while the Vikings lost three fumbles. Starting center Dewey Hathaway missed the game. He is competing at the 2024 World Archery Field Championships in Lac La Biche, Canada, which is north of Edmonton. Backup center Brayden Kukucka had a week of practice.

“We didn’t have our normal battery so you could tell the timing was off,” Subocz said. “BK did an awesome job, but you could tell they had a week of reps over four weeks of reps.”

Chapdelaine’s first touchdown to Tobin came on fourth-and-goal at the 21 and cut the deficit to 7-6.

“He kept telling me he was open, that he was beating the corner,” Chapdelaine said. “I didn’t believe him until I looked up and he was wide open in the back of the end zone.”

Smith trailed 14-6 at halftime. On its second possession of the third quarter, a double handoff to Michael Theriault led to a 20-yard gain and momentum. Jared Baer (17 carries, 71 yards) had runs of 18 and 14 yards, while Bryan Leyton picked up 13 on a cutback. Theriault finished the drive off another double handoff for a 5-yard touchdown.

“That got us moving a lot,” Tobin said.

Anthony Grimm (10 carries, 22 yards) scored twice for Ludlow. Kyle Rodrigues had 12 carries for 42 yards.