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Lumberjacks battle in loss

TUPPER LAKE – In Friday night’s final game on the Section X football schedule, things went pretty much the way they have most of the season for Tupper Lake when it hosted Massena at Frank Tice Field.

Despite being outmatched and outnumbered, the young Lumberjacks battled hard. But once again, Tupper Lake ultimately gave up too many big plays on the way to suffering a 48-6 loss to the Red Raiders.

Massena scored all seven of its touchdowns on plays of 20 yards and more, and running back Josh Cameron inflicted the heaviest damage on the ‘Jacks, scoring on runs of 50 and 55 yards in the first quarter and then putting the game’s final touchdown on the board on a 60-yard punt return in the fourth quarter.

“I was really proud of the way our kids played,” Tupper Lake head coach Dennis Klossner said. “They were hitting, they hit all the way through. I was really ecstatic about the energy that they had, we had some really good pops out there. We gave up five or six big plays, and other than that it was a really good game.”

With the win, Massena finished with a 6-0 record in Section X, which left it tied for the league’s regular season championship with unbeaten Gouverneur. The Red Raiders also snapped a two-game losing slide against non-league opponents as they improved to 6-2 overall. They finished with 337 yards on offense, with their six offensive touchdown plays eating up 265 of those yards.

After falling behind 14-0 less than halfway into the opening quarter, the Lumberjacks found a bit of life when they mounted a 63-yard scoring drive that junior Mike Hyde capped off on a 3-yard touchdown run with 30 seconds left in the period. The score cut Tupper Lake’s deficit to 14-6, but Massena answered right back on its next offensive play after taking possession at its own 42. On first down, junior quarterback Montana Pierce heaved a 58-yard touchdown bomb to Michael Brown, and the Raiders continued to roll from there.

Pierce went on to complete two more touchdown strikes, and ran for another. He tossed 36-yarder to Nate Bressard in the second quarter, and followed with a 20-yard toss to Austin Stowell early in the third period that pushed the Red Raiders’ lead to 34-6. The junior quarterback then rambled 46 yards midway through the third quarter upping his team’s edge to 41-6.

Cameron rounded out the scoring with his third touchdown of the game, dashing through the snow and criss-crossing the field on a 60-yard punt return with seven minutes left on the clock.

Tupper Lake was limited to 96 yards of offense, which all came on the ground. Hyde continued to run the ball impressively for the ‘Jacks and finished with a team-high 76 rushing yards on 28 carries. Sophomore quarterback Brennan McComber only got off four pass attempts in the game and completed one of them for no gain.

Cameron finished with a game-high 153 rushing yards on just 11 attempts. Pierce completed 4-of-10 pass attempts for 124 yards. All but 10 of those yards came on his three touchdown throws.

Massena is next slated to play in two weeks in a Class A regional playoff matchup against the Section II champions.

After finishing the regular season at 1-7, Tupper Lake now moves on to play Ticonderoga, which knocked off rival Moriah 22-7 in the Section VII, Class D championship matchup also held on Friday. The Lumberjacks-Sentinels matchup is tentatively scheduled to be played Friday in Potsdam.

Massena 48, Tupper Lake 6

[TABULATED_DATA]

Scoring

First Quarter

M – Cameron 50 run (Taraska kick), 3:12

M – Cameron 55 run (Taraska kick), 5:51

TL – Hyde 3 run (Kick blocked), 11:30

Second Quarter

M – Brown 58 pass from Pierce (Taraska kick), 11:44

M – Bressard 36 pass from Pierce (Taraska kick), 1:49

Third Quarter

M – Stowell 20 pass from Pierce (Kick blocked), 2:19

M – Pierce 46 run (Taraska kick), 6:23

Fourth Quarter

M – Cameron 60 punt return (Taraska kick), 5:00

Individual Statistics

RUSHING

Massena – Cameron 11-153 2TDs, Pierce 5-45 TD, Gardner 2-(-11), Brown 1-25, Armstrong 2-(-5), Gauthier 2-(-4). Totals: 23-203 3TDs.

Tupper Lake – Hyde 28-76 TD, McComber 6-2, J. Stradley 1-1, Bedore 3-4, Pickering 1-(-3), Becker 2-6. Totals: 41-96 TD.

PASSING

Massena – Pierce 4-10-0-124 3TDs.

Tupper Lake – McComber 1-4-0-0, Pickering 0-1-0-0. Totals: 1-5-0-0.

RECEIVING

Massena – Brown 2-68 TD, Bressard 1-36 TD, Stowell 1-20 TD.

Tupper Lake – Bedore 1-0.

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