Westfield’s Rashaun Rivers carries the ball on a special teams return. (Photo by Chris Putz)
SPRINGFIELD – Better late than never.
The Westfield High School football team failed to show up in the first quarter of its game against Putnam on Saturday afternoon, but recovered in time to give the Beavers a fight for the final three quarters.
Putnam senior Kayjuan Bynum scored on first quarter runs of 23 and 1 yard, junior Jaleel Brown added a late third quarter touchdown, and senior Rishawn Harris returned a punt 48 yards for a TD and the Beavers defeated Westfield 30-20 Saturday at Central High Stadium. The Bombers fell to 0-4.
Westfield junior quarterback Jake Toomey had a pair of one-yard touchdown runs, and threw a fantastic 16-yard dart to junior tight end Garrett Fitzgerald in the corner of the end zone.
“I was really disappointed with the way we showed up today,” Westfield coach Bill Moore said. “We gave a good football team great field position. I thought we fought hard the rest of the way.”
Bynum’s TD jaunts gave Putnam a 14-0 first quarter lead that would stay that way until after the halftime break.
In the third quarter, Toomey cracked the goose egg on the scoreboard with a short keeper. But Putnam reclaimed a two touchdown lead when Brown scored from 13 yards out with 52 seconds remaining. A two-point pass gave the Beavers a 22-6 advantage.
The Bombers did not give up.
Westfield senior Quinn Barbeito gave his team great field position early in the fourth quarter with a long kickoff return to the Putnam 41-yard line. Eight plays later, Toomey punched it in from the 1.
The two-point pass failed, leaving the Beavers with more than a one-score lead, 22-12, with 10:10 left.
Barbeito made his presence on the defensive side of the ball as well, intercepting Bynum’s pass on Putnam’s second play from the line of scrimmage, and setting up Westfield from its own 2-yard line.
The Bombers drive stalled deep in its own territory, and it proved to be more-than-problematic. The Beavers returned the punt 48 yards for a touchdown as Harris shook off would-be tacklers in the middle of the field and danced down the right sideline untouched.
On its next possession, Westfield took over from its own 39. Junior fullback Ben Geschwind split the middle of the Putnam defense on a third-and-six play, and rumbled 41 yards before being tripped up at the 16-yard line. The Bombers scored on the next play as Toomey fired a laser to Fitzgerald, who made diving catch in the corner of the end zone with 4:10 left on the clock. A two-point run cut the lead to 30-20.
Westfield received the ball, but turned it over when an offensive snap sailed over the head of Toomey. Putnam (3-1) recovered the ball.
“We’ve got to get off to a better start,” Toomey said after the game. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress (over the last four weeks) but we still have a lot of work to do.”
“I think we’re all working together as a team, running the ball hard. We’ve just got to show up ready every week.”
Said Moore: “We’ve got a good crew of kids. I’m disappointed with how we showed up. I like how we finished. Maybe we can come out of this and can make a play.”
Westfield returns to action Friday night at Agawam. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
