2 weeks Ago
ATHOL — Aidan Melanson may be a young man of few words, but his Senior Night performance Friday sent booming volumes across the North Quabbin region. Athol's senior quarterback set the school's modern-day record for career touchdown passes, slinging his way to 203 passing yards and all five of his team's scores in the Bears' 35-6 thumping of rival Mahar at Thomas J. O'Brien Field.
Melanson finished 10-of-18 through the air, threw one interception, and connected with Raydin Sousa (twice), Ethan Goodwin, Aaron Ouellet and Dominic Pope for touchdowns. He entered Friday's play with 32 TD passes in his career, trailing Erik Lafountain (36) and Adrian Softic (35), but passed them both for an up-to-date total of 37. "I started off slow, but I always thought I could," said Melanson of his new school record.
"I wanted to try for that. It feels good getting a win and trying to get in the playoffs." Athol (5-2, 3-1 Intercounty League North) hovered just outside the 16 Division 8 state playoff positions, checking in at No.
18 in the latest power rankings prior to Friday's game. Within the IL North, however, the Bears moved into a three-way tie for the top spot at 3-1, along with Ware and Franklin Tech, following Ware's head-to-head win over Tech Friday night. Mahar's rut deepened with its fifth straight loss, as the Senators slipped to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the North.
Sawyer Lefsyk, Athol's featured back who played only sparingly Friday due to injury, opened the game with a 28-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. Sousa got Athol close with a 14-yard gain down to the Mahar 12 and Melanson hit Goodwin on a crossing route in the end zone, with Logan Cormier's PAT, the first of his five, making it 7-0 only 2:38 into the action. The next four series ended in an exchange of punts, then a lost fumble by Mahar recovered by Athol's Marc Gould, and then Melanson's interception in the end zone by the Senators' Morgan Softic.
A 10-yard punt gave Athol prime field position at the Mahar 35, and Melanson needed only two plays to cash it in, with a 30-yard strike on a go route to Ouellet. That put the hosts up 14-0 with 7:53 left in the half. Article continues after.
.. Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess Another punt later, the Bears started at the Mahar 45 and reached the 35 before Melanson dumped a middle screen pass to Pope that went the distance for a 21-0 lead.
Stung into action, Mahar put together its best drive of the night, a 68-yarder, to crack the scoreboard in the final minute of the half. Softic had a pair of scrambles and a personal-foul call against Athol put the ball at the Bears' 36. From there, Softic lofted a touchdown pass to Jayden Delgado on a post-corner route.
The two-point conversion failed, leaving the score at 21-6 with only 47.5 seconds on the clock. Plenty of time for a response by Athol, as it turned out, with a kickoff return to the Mahar 48, a 23-yard completion from Melanson to Logan McGrath, and then a 30-yard dart to Sousa down the left sideline for the score with only 6.
4 seconds on the clock. Cormier's fourth extra point boosted the lead to 28-6 at the break. Athol's Goodwin then jumped on a muff of the second-half kickoff and the Bears needed exactly one play, a 29-yard pass from Melanson to Sousa, for the final points of the evening, coming just 11 seconds into the third quarter.
"There's not a lot of teams that have a quarterback and running game combo that we have," said Athol coach Josh Talbot. "We thought we could pass. The game plan went out the window a little bit when (Lefsyk) went down.
We were able to pivot, use some other guys in the run game, and let Aidan shine. "He made one bad throw tonight, but otherwise he threw some beautiful balls. He's quiet, but he's a confident guy.
It's a real blessing to have someone like him who can change a game." Sousa was Melanson's favorite target with four catches for 63 yards. Pope had 65 yards on a pair of grabs with McGrath contributing 33 yards and Ouellet 30.
On the ground, Athol kept things honest through the running of Pope (48 yards), Lefsyk (34) and Akeem Gerand (33). The Bears nearly doubled Mahar with 324 yards of total offense to the Senators' 165. Delgado led all rushers with 59 yards for Mahar and Ronnie Stone added 40.
Softic completed 4-of-7 passes for 51 yards with a touchdown and a pick; 49 of those yards went to Delgado on two catches. Both teams go on the road Friday for 7 p.m.
games, with Athol at Greenfield and Mahar visiting Franklin Tech..
