ORANGE — The lessons learned the first time around served Athol very well indeed during Thursday's Thanksgiving rematch.

Three first-quarter touchdown passes set the tone early for the Bears and the ground game helped do the rest, along without a stout defense that kept Mahar entirely off the scoreboard in a 26-0 whitewash at the Woodward Complex.

Aidan Melanson, the author of five touchdown passes in Athol's 35-6 victory on Oct. 25, threw two more Thursday, sandwiching a 40-yard double-pass strike from Logan Cormier to Dominic Pope. The Bears' passers finished 10-of-19 through the air for 199 yards. Sawyer Lefsyk, named Athol's Most Valuable Player, added 79 yards on 16 carries. His 1-yard TD run with 3:48 remaining put a bow on the Bears' rivalry win and a 7-4 finish to the 2024 season.

"We were happy to see that it wasn't raining super hard in pregame, which gave us an opportunity to attack through the air and do some things early on," said Athol coach Josh Talbot. "We knew we could throw the ball, and we could get into our bag of tricks. That made it a lot easier. We still had to grind it out for four quarters with the weather and the penalties."

Mahar closed out the year at 3-8 and the Senators found extremely rough going throughout Thursday’s game. The hosts had six first downs in all – three coming as a result of penalties – and only 16 yards of total offense. Their deepest advance was to the Athol 13-yard-line on the final play of the first half.

"The biggest thing right now is to be steady all the way through, and never let that go," said Mahar coach Percy Eady. "Even in practice, even in our offseason work, that's a very strong point. We have to learn to ride the waves, whether they're good or bad, and stay us the whole time."

Athol went straight downfield on a 77-yard drive to open the game and was on the board barely four minutes in. Melanson hit Lefsyk on a middle screen pass that turned into a 43-yard score. Offensive guard Dakota Fitzpatrick was called on for the two-point try on a direct snap from center, but was trapped in the backfield for a loss, keeping the lead at 6-0.

Carter Hardy's 16-yard kickoff return put the Senators at midfield to start, but Akeem Gerand intercepted for Athol two plays later. From the Mahar 40, Melanson threw a backward pass to the left, fielded on one bounce by wideout Cormier, and Pope slipped behind the Senators' secondary to latch on to Cormier's rainbow pass for an uncontested score. Logan McGrath then ran in the two-pointer for a 14-0 Bears lead with 6:08 to play in the first.

Once again, Mahar started well with a squib kickoff recovery at the Athol 34, but the Senators managed only three yards before a fourth-down sack by Ethan Goodwin forced a turnover on downs at the 35. The Bears made it hurt right away when Melanson hit Raydin Sousa on a wheel route out of the backfield that turned into a 63-yard score by Sousa with 2:44 left. Another Athol lineman, Marc Gould, came up short on the two-point attempt.

With the issue already all but decided, penalties and turnovers descended on the Woodward Complex just like the moderate cold rain. Mahar's Jayden Dicato covered a bad pitchout to stop an Athol drive, and Malaki Grummell came up with an interception of Melanson late in the second quarter.

At halftime, Athol commanded the field with 243 yards of total offense to Mahar's five.

The Senators took the second-half k ickoff and moved into Athol territory before Morgan Softic's completion to Jayden Delgado was fumbled and Goodwin recovered for the Bears at their own 48. They would turn the ball over on downs and Mahar punted on its next series, giving Athol possession at its own 18 with 2:17 left in the third.

That got the Bears started on a monster 16-play drive that consumed 10 1/2 minutes of game time, helped along by Melanson's completions of 18 yards to Aaron Ouellet and nine yards to Sousa, and chunk gains of 16, 11 and nine yards by Lefsyk. On second-and-goal from the 1, Lefsyk dove in for the final score of the day, coming with 3:48 on the clock.

Softic (4-of-7 passing) earned Mahar's game MVP honors, while Nick LeBlanc of Athol and Mahar's Grummell were named the game's outstanding linemen.

"This group is incredibly important to me and to each other," said Talbot, whose team wrapped up its second straight 7-4 season. "The journey that we've been on together these last few years, because of these seniors, I took this job because I cared about them and I wanted them to have the best possible experience. We're all here because our seniors are dynamic individuals and great humans. We're losing a lot of talented players, but we're hopeful that they've helped us create a program."

Athol's lead in the all-time series grew to 54 wins against Mahar's 33, with one tie.