Devils win on emotional day

By TOM HALEY
Staff Writer
POULTNEY — It was nightmarish first six minutes or so of the game for the Springfield football team and the Cosmos never recovered, losing Saturday’s highly anticipated Division III showdown with Poultney 36-8.

The Blue Devils scored on the game’s first series, a drive that covered 58 yards on eight plays – all on the ground. Levi Allen did the bulk of the work by gaining 41 yards on five carries and quarterback Caden Capman capped the march by going over from a yard out.

Then disaster struck for the Cosmos. Heith Mason covered the ensuing kickoff for Poultney allowing Capman and his offense to set up shop at the Springfield 38.

Five plays later, Capman scored again, this time on a 5-yard run.

Allen went over for the two-point conversion. The Cosmos were behind 14-0 with 6:28 to play in the first quarter and they had not yet run a play.

That was just the beginning of a big day for Allen. He finished with 176 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries.

One of Poultney’s most beloved citizens Joe DeBonis was transported to the game by ambulance. A patriarch of a revered Blue Devils football family and the father of current Poultney High Principal and line coach Joe DeBonis, the elder Joe was visited by the team after the game, each Blue Devil going into the ambulance to shake his hand.

The emotional 100-yard ceremony in the morning and the visit with Joe Debonis following the game were treasured bookends on a game that was surprisingly one-sided.

The Cosmos brought a 5-2 record into the game and had been playing well.

“The team that showed up today is not the same team that has been performing so well the last couple of weeks,” Springfield coach Todd Aiken said. “We were out of the game before we even took our first snap.”

Senior lineman Jacob DeBonis, the grandson of the honored guest, said it was the Devils’ intent to seize control of the game like that at the outset.

“Our mindset is to come out and be more physical than they are,” DeBonis said.

The Blue Devils took a 23-0 lead into halftime after Allen scored from two yards out and Mason, with some help from his friends, wrapped up Brady Clark in the end zone for a safety.

Springfield brought an impressive resume to town and the Cosmos and Devils both had one-touchdown losses to No. 1 BFA-Fairfax so Poultney coach Dave Capman knew this wasn’t necessarily over. During his halftime talk, he stressed the importance of stopping the Cosmos on the first series after they received the second-half kickoff.

They did that. Ryan Alt, DeBonis, Mason, Allen and Lucas DuPel were containing and tackling. It was a defensive effort that put up a three-and-out on the Cosmos on that opening series, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

Allen had another touchdown that bumped the score to 30-0 after Alt made good on the PAT with 6:33 to go in the third quarter.

The Cosmos broke through with 4:08 left in the third quarter, a 19-yard scoring strike from Sam Presch to Noah Zierfus. Presch then threw to Anthony Steele for the two points.

Allen’s 29-yard touchdown run with 8:28 left in the game accounted for the final score.

“This is a big step for us,” coach Capman told his 7-1 Blue Devils after the game. 

He felt a key was shutting down the Cosmos on that first series after halftime.

“That was a huge momentum stopper,” he said.

“We try to come out for the second half thinking it’s zero to zero. That is our mindset,” Jacob DeBonis said.

If you had told Aiken that his quarterback would be throwing 33 times on the afternoon he might have suspected his team would be in trouble.

But the Blue Devils did a great job of stuffing a normally potent Springfield running game featuring quality backs like Jake Stepler and Brady Clark.

Falling behind, the Cosmos had no choice but to take to the air.

Presch had some success, completing 16 of his 33 passes for 187 yards and the touchdown.

“Poulney did a good job of defending the pass but we cold have done a better job of running routes and throwing the ball,” Aiken said.

Caden Capman did an outstanding job of directing the offense in his final regular-season home game and also added 63 rushing yards of his own to go with two scores.

It was a memorable day for the seniors – Capman, Lucas Gloss, DeBonis, Jacob McMahon, Mason, DuPell and Thomas Dunbar.

But maybe the day was most memorable for the man who came back to the venue where his sons and grandson had played so many games. Joe DeBonis was back at Dean W. Houghton Field. That was every bit as good as the victory itself.