TURNERS FALLS — Different football teams treat assigned non-playoff games differently, but for two teams that were co-champions in their respective leagues, Friday night's meeting did carry a playoff feeling about it.

Thanks to Josiah Little's 271 rushing yards and five touchdowns, Franklin Tech shook off an uninspired start and went on to thrash Monument Mountain, 50-16.

The Eagles (8-1) finished one slot outside the 16-team MIAA Division 8 state playoff bracket, but rang up their season-high point total and got a single-season record for Little in the process, now with 1,697 rushing yards.

"Our energy was not quite where we would have liked it in the early stages," said Eagles coach Joe Gamache. "The kids were able to battle through that and really bring quite a bit of life. The line did a great job, Joe had a big night running the football, and overall we executed really well. Everything kind of clicked for us."

Monument (5-4) brought the deserved reputation of a high-scoring outfit, having topped 48 points in five games during its regular season. The Spartans went methodically downfield on the first series of the night, covering 72 yards in 11 plays. Dom Calautti completed three passes to Isaiah Keefner for 41 yards and one to T.J. Brown for 14 more. Eriel Dominguez finished it off on an 8-yard scoring run, followed by Keefner's two-point conversion catch, for an 8-0 Spartan lead after only 3:34 of action.

Maxon Brunette then ran the kickoff back to the Eagles' 47 for a good starting point, and Little went to work right away with four carries for 29 yards. Wyatt Whitman added 20 more on the ground. Little dove in from a yard out for his first score, then ran in the two-pointer, to lift the hosts into an 8-8 tie at the 4:01 mark.

Madix Whitman then came up with the first of his two interceptions, the first of four by the Tech secondary. Little carried for 52 yards on the 60-yard drive, capped by his 11-yard run to make it 14-8 just over two minutes into the second quarter.

Another pickoff, this one by Tyler Yetter who ran it back 37 yards, put the Eagles in business at the Spartans' 28. Five plays later, Yetter (3-of-6 passing, 27 yards) zipped an 11-yard TD pass to Ethan Smarr to boost the lead to 20-8.

Tech began the second half at the Monument 47 after the Spartans' opening squib kickoff failed to travel the necessary 10 yards. Little did all the heavy lifting, carrying on seven of the Eagles' 10 plays and plunging in from the 2 to make it a 26-8 game with 7:13 left in the third.

The Spartans then advanced to the Tech 34 before giving up the ball on downs and Little wasted no time, taking a first-down pitch from Yetter down the left sideline to the house, a 66-yard scamper. His two-point run put the Eagles up 34-8.

Monument's James Green snapped off a 38-yard kickoff return to set up the Spartans at the Tech 35. With Keefner and Rodriguez putting together first-down carries, Monument faced fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line before Keefner scored the touchdown, then latched on to Calautti's conversion pass for a 34-16 score.

Little and the Eagles weren't done, beating the third-quarter clock with his fifth touchdown of the evening, a 51-yard run, with Wyatt Whitman rushing for the two-pointer. The hosts then used an interception by Madix Whitman to start at their own 8-yard line, Brunette had a 45-yard run and Jaxon Silva a 32-yarder to get Tech downfield quickly, and the scoring wrapped up on Brunette's 5-yard touchdown and a two-point run by Zay Alamed with 4:05 remaining.

Tech ran for 403 yards and put up 430 yards of total offense.

Calautti completed 9-of-24 passes for 111 yards with four picks. Keefner (41 receiving yards) and Logan Stevens (39) each had three receptions for the Spartans, while Dominguez ran for a team-high 75 yards and Keefner added 39. Monument ended the night with 249 total yards.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for us to get better," said Monument coach Chris Tucci. "I know it hurts, but you've gotta start somewhere and you've gotta learn. It's a tough sell to a kid to tell them to play for a game like this, but our senior leadership was there and they understood the importance of growing this program."

The Spartans have another assigned game, likely at home, ahead in Week 10, while Franklin Tech awaits its semifinal opponent in the State Vocational small schools tournament next weekend.