by Dakota Antelman
Despite one major injury in practice, and a sickening one on the field, the Hawks powered past North Middlesex on Friday, notching their first league win, and breaking a four-game losing streak.
Junior Stephen Miranda stepped in at quarterback on Friday after Armel Conyers, who has started all year long in the position, broke his foot in practice. Miranda entered the game, his second start of the year, abound with confidence. Likewise, senior Jesse Nemerowicz found holes in the Patriot defense and racked up one of his strongest statistical performances since he ran for 175 yards in Week One vs. Clinton.
“Our offensive line played huge. Our offense came up huge in general,” Miranda said after the game. “Everyone played great. We played our game.”
Miranda had usually come into games late in the third or fourth quarters this season. Up until the injury to Conyers, Miranda had thrown the ball very little with just 14 completions for 145 passing yards for the varsity team.
Miranda described the mixed emotions he felt prior to the game.
“Obviously, before every game I get in, I’m nervous, but I felt prepared for this one,” he said.
Coach Dan McAnespie felt confident about Miranda.
“We had no uncertainty at all,” he said. “We had a lot of faith in Stephen. He has played at the JV level for the past two years. We believe in him.”
Miranda delivered consistency to the Hawk offense on Friday, finishing the game with 95 rushing yards, a rushing touchdown, as well as one touchdown pass. McAnespie praised not only Miranda, but the offense as a whole for helping in their quarterback’s success.
“Stephen does a lot more straightforward running,” he said. “We worked on getting him a lot of reps. I think he ran the ball well today. He runs way more north and south while Armel runs all over the place. That meant we had to adjust, and I think we adjusted really well. The offensive line really helped us out.”
Miranda and the Hawks got a gift early when the defense forced a fumble deep in Patriot territory. North Middlesex had run just two plays when their quarterback Joe Haskins was hit hard and dropped the ball near his own 30-yard line. Hudson took over and Miranda quickly ran the Hawks to within three yards of the touchdown zone. From there, Nemerowicz took over and rumbled in for the three-yard score, his first in two weeks.
“That kinda set the tone. It let us know we could move the ball and also play well on defense,” McAnespie said of the opening drive. “It was so great to get something like that early.”
Hudson battled with North Middlesex closely for the rest of the first half. Their defense was beaten on a 30-yard touchdown run by Anton Dotson, shortly after the Nemerowicz touchdown. Hudson took the ball down the field on their very next drive though and set up Miranda to score a rushing touchdown of his own to take back the lead.
Miranda continued to settle in at quarterback in the second quarter. He opened with a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tyler Butts that kept Hudson’s lead intact going into halftime.
The second quarter saw a brutal and unnerving situation unfold on the field. With roughly eight minutes left in the half, a tackle on a run play left one North Middlesex player unconscious on the field. He laid motionless for roughly 10 minutes before an ambulance arrived. Coaches from both teams as well as the injured player’s parents gathered around him before he was taken away. According to McAnespie, the player was suffering from a sore neck and could move his arms and legs by the time he was loaded into the waiting ambulance.
“They wanted to be really precautious about it,” McAnespie said. “They made the right call getting him out of there. He was moving, so I think he’s gonna be fine.”
He added, “Any time a kid gets hurt, our team, their team, it’s always disappointing. You feel for the kid. His parents were down on the field. You wanna make sure he’s healthy.”
After a break and a resounding show of support for the player from Hawk players and fans, McAnespie and Nemerowicz moved throughout their team and shouted that it was time to get back to playing. Though saddened by the injury, Hudson kept its offense rolling for the remainder of the game.
Nemerowicz scored twice in the third quarter while Evan Montanez added a sixth touchdown for Hudson early in the fourth quarter.
Hudson finished with a 40-21 final score, their largest margin of victory since Week Two vs. Assabet. Friday’s victory in the Homecoming game was the Hawks’ first win at home this season and also went down as their first win in Midland League B play this season.
Hudson heads to Oakmont next week before coming home later next month to host Marlborough in the Turkey Day Game.
“It’s great momentum for us, 2-4, now 3-4,’ McAnespie said. “We’re not thinking league play as much as just trying to get some wins and some positive atmosphere going on.”
