By Ken Wells
NEWPORT –– The North Country Falcons blew open their final home game of the season knocking off Mount Abraham 34-8 at Veterans Field Friday night.
NCU struck early on a six yard touchdown run by Gage Beaumont. NC tallied once more in the opening stanza as senior Ryder Descheneau took a screen and sprinted 74 yards down the left sideline into the endzone where he was met by two fans patting him on the back.
They scored again in the second quarter as Jason Pelliter, making his first start at quarterback, rumbled his way to a nine yard TD jaunt before Julian Thrailkill blasted his way to pay dirt from eight yards away for North Country’s fourth touchdown of the first half.
With two scoring efforts in the second period the rout was on with a 28 zero score at intermission. Pellieter found the end zone again in the third period from eleven yards out.
The Eagles, who had 294 yards on offense, finally found a scoring play of their own when tailback Cole Gagnon went in from 16 yards out. Gagnon finished with 114 yards on 16 carries and went over the 10000 yard mark for the season. They close the regular season at 5-3 taking the sixth seed and a trip to take on the 3 seed Fairhaven next weekend.
The Falcons, who finished with 418 yards of offense including 157 passing from Pelllieter, are now 3-5 and earn the seven seed. Beaumont had 84 yards on the ground on 14 carries.
The Falcons take on number two seed Bellows Falls this Friday in the VPA Division Two quarter-finals. Kickoff on the NSN Sports Network is 7 p.m. Pre game at 6:45 p.m.
