SOUTH DEERFIELD — Trailing 9-0 midway through the second quarter Friday night, the picture didn't look so rosy for Greenfield – until "The Levin and Devin Show" brought the Green Wave roaring back.
The combination of quarterback Levin Prondecki and receiver Devin Buchanan connected for two long scoring passes, one in the second quarter and one in the third, and Greenfield ran off the final 30 points of the game to swamp Frontier, 30-9, in nonleague action.
Ryan Pulizari ran for a game-high 150 yards and added a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns for the visiting Wave, who improved to 2-1 ahead of their Intercounty League North home date with Athol next Friday.
"We haven't really come together as a team, but a game like this really brought us together," said Greenfield coach Mike Kuchieski. "Our offensive line really stepped up and played awesome tonight, they came out and took the game. Defensively, we swarmed to the ball, we had some great play from everybody up front, and our linebackers were flying all over the field.
"We were lucky to do what we did and happy with what we did. We could have easily won the Chicopee game, and been 3-0. But we can't dwell on that. As far as I'm concerned, we're 0-0 going into next week. We'll celebrate this one, because it's a sweet win."
Meanwhile, Frontier (2-1) was held without a first down over the final two quarters and managed only eight yards of total offense in that span, with three three-and-out series. The Redhawks possessed the football for only 6:09 of the 24 minutes in the second half.
"I don't know what happened with our ability to stay in the football game and at least be competitive," said Frontier coach Scott Dredge. "It's not like we didn't know what they were going to do. Prondecki had some beautiful passes, and they got us on those. Credit to Greenfield, they did what they do, and they beat us."
On its first possession, Greenfield lost a fumble to Frontier's Eathon Bryant at its own 28 and the Redhawks looked to capitalize, driving down to the Wave 1. There, Joey White recovered a fumble for the Wave, now backed up against their own goal line. On third down, Bryant wrapped up White in the end zone for a safety, giving the hosts a 2-0 edge with 1:05 left in the first.
Frontier took the ensuing free kick and moved down to the Greenfield 13 before surrendering the ball on downs, but the Redhawks promptly got it back when Kaden James intercepted Prondecki at the Greenfield 33. Aiden Dredge found Ian Burt on a post pattern good for 27 yards and a score, with Jesse Dubreuil's extra point lifting the Hawks to a 9-0 lead.
Greenfield then moved 63 yards in only four plays and Buchanan latched on to a 41-yard TD pass from Prondecki to put the Wave on the board. Buchanan added the two-point conversion run to make it 9-8 with 4:07 left in the half.
Prondecki then picked off Dredge just before the break and returned it 15 yards to the Frontier 45.
At the start of the second half, Buchanan ran the same go pattern down the right sideline and Prondecki found him again, this time for 49 yards, to give the Wave the lead. Prondecki's two-point run made it a 16-9 game with 8:52 to play in the third.
While Frontier's offense sputtered from there, Pulizari turned into Greenfield's workhorse, with 18 carries for 110 yards in the second half alone. He padded the Wave's lead on an 11-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter, making it 22-9, then finished off his night on a 37-yard run with 6:43 remaining. White's two-point run capped the scoring at 30-9.
Prondecki finished 3-of-5 passing for 98 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, while Buchanan's two TD catches gave him 90 receiving yards. Greenfield held a 269-88 advantage in total offense.
Burt led the Redhawk ground gainers with 29 yards and Sean Kirkendall had 22. Aiden Dredge was 1-for-8 with the 27-yard TD pass to Burt and one interception.
"It's certainly better than last year's first three games," said Scott Dredge. "I'm happy with that overall, but we're gonna have to play a heckuva lot better if we want to seriously consider ourselves as contenders in our league. That's just the bottom line."
Frontier plays its Intercounty League South opener at Lee Friday night.