By Andrew Guindon
NEFJ Correspondent
HUDSON — A physical rivalry game took place at the Morgan Bowl on Friday night.
The Hudson Hawks and Clinton Gaels, a historic rivalry, ended in a 40-13 blowout victory for the Hawks.
Hudson’s rushing attack was too much for the Gael defense to limit as they would go on to finish the game with five total rushing touchdowns. Senior quarterback Jake Attaway and tailback Garrett Giorgio each came away with two. Sophomore Logan Dome had the single other.
“Our approach every game is to be dynamic on offense, looking to throw and run,” coach Zac Attaway said. “Their (Clinton) plan tonight seemed to be to take the pass away . . . We had to get that ground game going—I think we did that pretty effectively.”
The first quarter was a defensive-sided game with a 0-0 score heading into the second quarter. Halfway through the first quarter, Clinton quarterback Colin Schmidt targeted the end zone from 30 yards out but was intercepted by senior WR/DB Nolan Yates.
With three minutes left to go in the first quarter, the Hawks recovered a fumble at the opposing 46-yard line. That Gael mistake would result in a Hawk touchdown on the first play of the second quarter—Attaway rolled out right, evaded several tackles, and found the end zone to take a 7-0 lead.
From then on, the Hawks would extend their lead to 21-0 on a physical touchdown run from Giorgio and a 30-yard rushing touchdown from Attaway.
The Gaels made a late-half push on offense with 1:20 to go in the second quarter as quarterback Colin Schmidt perfectly placed a ball at the left pylon, setting up sophomore receiver Grady Frisch for a touchdown grab to cut into Hudson’s lead to 21-7.
To open the second half, Hudson kicked off to Clinton, who had a big return out to Hudson’s 42-yard line. However, as the Gaels continued to push further into Hudson territory, senior defensive back/wide receiver Tyrese Meuse came away with an interception off of a tipped Schmidt pass at the line of scrimmage.
“I trust our defense,” said the elder Attaway. “We were ready to stop them, whether it was run or pass. It’s just having confidence on the other side of the ball knowing that they’re going to get your back . . . The defense was unbeatable tonight. That big turnover too by Tyrese Meuse—that was a big momentum swing.”
With just under nine minutes to go in the third quarter, Hudson took over at their own 33. Following the interception, Attaway led the Hudson offense down the field with several first-down scrambles. Giorgio capped off a three-minute drive with a 3-yard rushing touchdown up the middle, following a solid rush from freshman running back Giovanni Caruso to make it 27-7 Hawks.
“Jake’s got to resort to his legs sometimes, and that’s what happened tonight,” Attaway said. “He knows sometimes when things aren’t going our way in the air, he’s just got to do some damage on the ground, and he did that today for us.”
On the following drive, Clinton continued to struggle on offense, having the punt the ball away following a Mason Auger sack on third down. With 3:30 left in the third quarter, Attaway spotted a wide-open Savion Newton-Clark who beat the safety on a broken coverage, resulting in a 53-yard touchdown to extend Hudson’s lead to 34-7.
“I saw they had one high safety, and we ran a post-corner,” Jake Attaway said. “So it was either the corner or the post. Then it was just pick and choose, and I threw it on the post for a touchdown.”
The senior quarterback gave props to Newton-Clark for finishing the play: “Savion’s got great hands; he’s got two of those this year, so I trust him.”
The fourth quarter was capped off by a 5-yard rushing touchdown from Dome on an outside zone run to the right. Clinton also went on to score one last touchdown with 10 seconds left in the game to reduce the final score to 40-13.