BELCHERTOWN — Trailing 13-8 and facing a fourth-and-3 in his own territory midway through the fourth quarter, Northampton football head coach Joe Kocot kept his offense on the field hoping a conversion would spark the team’s struggling offense.

And on the key fourth down at the Blue Devils 35-yard line, Kocot called on Jacoby Allard — as he had done all night. Allard took a handoff and cut out to the right, turned up field and took off.

It wasn’t until Allard reached the Belchertown 23-yard line that he was finally brought down, a 42-yard gain that gave Northampton more than a little life. Three plays later, Ethan Rivera reeled in a pitch from quarterback Dion Cadiz and raced into the end zone from 12 yards out to give the Blue Devils a 14-13 advantage. A successful 2-point conversion vaulted their lead to three.

On the ensuing Orioles possession, Northampton forced a turnover on downs to get the ball back, and it ran out the clock – securing a 16-13 victory on the road on Friday night.

The Blue Devils – which trailed 13-0 midway through the second quarter – have already matched their win total from last season just one game into 2024. And they only have two seniors on the entire team.

“It’s all about the kids tonight,” Kocot said. “We’re really happy for them. They’ve worked their tails off to be ready to play tonight. And that’s a good Belchertown team over there. We controlled the clock, and that’s the key. I told the guys at halftime, ‘I’m telling you right now we’re going to win this game.’ And I don’t do that often, but the way we were playing, I knew we would wear them down.”

Northampton began the night with a drive into Belchertown territory before turning the ball over on downs. The two teams then traded three-and-outs and the Orioles set up shop at their own 26-yard line.

The very first play of the possession was a give to Coleman Longley on an end-around. He quickly cut it up field and darted 74 yards to the house, untouched after bursting through the Northampton front seven. A Brian Carlin extra point made it 7-0 in favor of the hosts.

Two drives later, an eight play, 53-yard Belchertown drive in 4 minutes, 43 seconds was capped off by a trick play touchdown. Longley came around to take another end-around handoff from quarterback Jack Beals, but instead of turning to run, he looked to pass. He tossed a 30-yard strike to Adam O’Rourke for the score. Just like that, the Orioles were ahead two scores, 13-0.

After graduating all of its starting skill positions, Belchertown’s new faces stepped up right away.

“For the first game, it was obviously nice to get out to a hot start and have that 13-0 lead,” Belchertown head coach Keith LeBeau said. “We moved the ball really well, and when we didn’t, it was because of our own mistakes – penalties, turnovers, holding calls. For our team to be this young, losing our whole backfield from last year, our new quarterback and backfield came together and I’m proud of them. Everyone worked hard, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Northampton responded with a 7-yard touchdown run from Allard to get on the board, and Cadiz bullied his way into the end zone to tack on the 2-point conversion. Still, the Blue Devils trailed 13-8 heading into the locker room.

The whole third quarter was a game of cat-and-mouse, with both offenses trying to figure out the opposing defense. It wasn’t until Allard’s clutch fourth-down conversion in the fourth where a team got inside the 20-yard line in the second half.

Allard finished the night with 152 yards and the one score, shouldering most of the load offensively for Northampton.

A year ago, Allard started at right tackle. He lived in the weight room all summer, and made the transition to the backfield this fall. He’s now the main ball carrier in Kocot’s wishbone offense, which is new to the Blue Devils.

“He’s a beast in the weight room. I mean, a beast,” Kocot said of his tailback. “He’s a lovable kid; does all the right things and says all the right things. He’s new to the backfield, but when you work out like he does, you can put him anywhere.”

Northampton (1-0) welcomes Taconic at 7 p.m. next Thursday for its home opener.

Belchertown (0-1) felt it did enough to win the game on Friday, but a few too many miscues couldn’t be overcome.

In game one under LeBeau, who took over for head coaching duties from Dan McCarthy, the Orioles showed a ton of grit. And for a team as young as they are, that’s certainly a good start. Belchertown will get another chance to earn LeBeau his first win next Thursday when it travels to Pittsfield at 7 p.m.

“It’s just the little things, which are totally fixable,” LeBeau said. “I told the kids, ‘You just gotta keep working hard.’ They’re gonna look back at this game and remember the things that could’ve gone our way. We came to play, and we played hard. It just didn’t work out. Someone had to lose.”