Maynard/AMSA football team recently got their first two wins of the season, winning against Oakmont Regional by a score of 29-28 and Assabet Valley RVT, 14-8. It was Maynard/AMSA head coach Harry LeSage’s first win of the season and his players celebrated by dousing him with a water cooler after the victory. 

Oakmont opened the scoring when they returned the opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown. Maynard/AMSA answered back three minutes later, as Michael Coleman broke through the right side for a 21-yard touchdown run.  

Oakmont took the lead back in the second quarter when quarterback Brandon Roy found Quigley with two touchdown strikes.  Coleman wasn’t done for Maynard/AMSA, though, running in a 2-yard touchdown in the second quarter and two more in the third. After his third touchdown, a 46-yard scamper with 9:40 left in the third, Maynard/AMSA’s Tommy Lawton punched in the two-point conversion run, tying the game at 22-22. 

Coleman’s 33-yard touchdown two minutes later and Lawton’s PAT kick gave Maynard/AMSA a lead it would not relinquish. Coleman finished the game with 13 carries for 175 yards and four scores. 

The Maynard/AMSA defense asserted itself in the second half. The Tigers consistently pressured Oakmont’s Roy and forced three turnovers on downs. Victory Miki had three sacks in the game while teammates Derek Viera and Jake Frias each added one. 

The Tiger defense also secured the victory with 39 seconds left in the game. Facing fourth down, Roy threw a fade to Quigley in the right side of the end zone. Maynard/AMSA defenders John Hobin and Coleman broke up the pass, giving Maynard the ball back for the victory formation kneeldown. 

The Maynard/AMSA football team’s style of play can resemble a meat grinder.  They grind out long drives that bleed the clock. They grind down opposing running attacks with their stout defense. Those qualities were all on display recently, as Maynard/AMSA ground out a 14-8 victory over Assabet Valley at Aztec Field in Marlborough. 

The Tigers held Assabet to just 156 total yards, forced two turnovers, and stopped the Aztecs twice on key fourth downs. The first of those stops came at the Maynard/AMSA 4-yard line. The Tigers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead on Tommy Lawton’s four-yard run in the first quarter that capped a 12-play, 7-minute, 25-second drive.

On the ensuing drive, Assabet went 67 yards on 14 plays before getting stopped on fourth-and-2 from the Tiger 4. Assabet running back Jonathan Ssaewajje was met by Maynard’s Niko Andrews, Lawton, and Rodriguo Madureira short of the line to gain. 

Maynard/AMSA added a second touchdown in the second quarter, with quarterback Connor Noble finding running back Derek Viera on a screen play for a 38-yard touchdown. It was Noble’s first passing touchdown of the season and Viera’s first receiving touchdown. 

Assabet struck back on their opening drive of the second half, capping a 10-play drive with a touchdown pass. 

Maynard/AMSA’s defense shut down the Aztecs the rest of the way, only giving up 14 total yards and no first downs on the final three Assabet drives. That included another key fourth-down stop late in the fourth quarter. On a 4th-and-6 play from the Assabet 40, Andrews and Victory Miki stopped Aztec quarterback Michael Karnes three yards shy of the first down. 

Three plays later, Maynard/AMSA picked up a first down on Viera’s two-yard run, which sealed the victory for the Tigers. Maynard/AMSA (2-3) will try to continue its winning streak next week, hosting St. Bernard’s.