Wahconah Wraps Up Perfect League Campaign

DALTON, Mass. — Wahconah finished the regular season atop the Suburban South standings, defeating Agawam, 40-8, to claim the league championship and finish undefeated in league play.

 

This one was all Wahconah from the opening whistle on both sides of the ball.

 

Wahconah set the tone early, forcing a fumble on Agawam’s opening possession before putting together a six-play, 54-yard drive that ended with a seven-yard touchdown run by Anthony Talora to make it 8-0.

 

Wahconah's defense forced a punt on the next series, and the offense wasted little time adding to the lead. Anthony Englyshe broke free for a 62-yard touchdown run on just the second play of the drive to extend the lead to 14-0.

 

Agawam put together its best drive of the game late in the first half, working its way down to the Wahconah 5-yard line. But Wahconah came up with another big defensive play when Gio Venable intercepted a pass in the end zone and returned it 35 yards with fewer than two minutes remaining.

 

“Huge interception from Gio in the end zone,” Wahconah head coach Gary Campbell Jr. said. “I thought he was going to take it to the house, but it stopped any momentum Agawam had because it was 14-0 at the time.”

 

Wahconah turned the interception into another scoring opportunity, with Englyshe breaking off a 58-yard run that took him all the way to the one-yard line. Jerry Beaubrun punched it in on the next play to make it 20-0.

 

Wahconah continued to put pressure on Agawam, recovering the ensuing kickoff and capitalizing with a touchdown pass from Venable to Trevion Hawkins to extend the lead to 26-0 before halftime.

 

Wahconah kept its momentum going in the second half, with Talora finding the end zone twice more to finish with three touchdowns on the night.

 

Agawam struggled to find an answer on either side of the ball as Wahconah continued to control the game from start to finish.

 

“The most important thing for us is to be Suburban League champions and undefeated in the league, which was our number one goal,” Campbell said. “For the smallest school in that division, we were really, really proud about that.”

 

Wahconah finishes the regular season undefeated in league play and will now wait to see who it hosts in the Division 7 playoffs. The MIAA will release the state tournament seeds on Sunday.