By Tom Haley
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Somehow during a conversation on Saturday with former Windsor athletic director Bob Hingston and Randy Holhut, of the newspaper The Commons, the name of late Boston Globe sports editor Ernie Roberts surfaced.
Roberts’ signature was a Saturday morning column peppered with references about the breakfast menu.
So, in honor of the legendary Roberts, who died in 2009, let’s talk about Championship Saturday over breakfast.
Hoist that orange juice and give a toast to the Proctor girls soccer team and the Stowe boys soccer team. The Phantoms won the state crown with a resounding 6-0 win over Rivendell but even more impressive is that it was their ninth consecutive appearance in a state championship game.
Stowe’s streak is mind-boggling. The Raiders went up to Division II this season and that couldn’t stop them. After seven consecutive Division III titles, Stowe defeated Middlebury 2-0 in the D-II final.
Following the Division IV championship game at Bellows Falls Union High School, Rivendell coach Tim Goodwin talked about how much it meant for the Phantoms’ experience on soccer’s biggest stage against his team of players getting their first taste of that limelight.
It was a memorable day and great way to go out for Proctor standouts Allie Almond and Flanders, the Phantoms’ only seniors.
“I didn’t expect that,” Proctor coach Chris Hughes said of the 6-0 blitz.
I don’t think many people did. The Phantoms were an outstanding team with talent all over the field, but area fans who saw the No. 3 Raptors in the semifinal game beat No. 2 West Rutland were very impressed with Rivendell.
A tough game was expected but it turned into a rout.
Pass the link sausages, please, and let’s talk about Otter Valley’s tough 1-0 field hockey loss to Mount Abraham at the University of Vermont.
The top-seeded Otters had an outstanding season and a victory would have been a perfect swan song for OV coach Stacey Edmunds, who announced that was her final game after eight seasons.
She knows the feeling of the victory parade. Her Otters defeated Mount Abe 1-0 in the 2015 state championship game.
But you know she wanted this one more for seniors Livia Bernhardt, Morgan LaPorte, Isabella Falco, goalie Elinor Ross and Alia Edmunds.
Give me some ketchup for those hash browns and let’s rehash (sorry) that tender moment at the end of the Proctor-Rivendell game.
If you were there for the horrific collision at first base during the softball season that had Laci French in the hospital for a few days, you know it was a very scary moment. She mended enough to make it onto the field for the soccer season, but broke the same arm early in the year and never got back on the pitch.
Until Saturday. She was inserted for a cameo appearance in the final minute and even got touches on the ball including taking a direct kick.
She was there on the sideline throughout the season and would have been a part of the state title anyway, but this made for a nice moment.
Marmalade jam for my toast, please, and anything at all that coach Peter Roach and his Mill River boys soccer team wants — anything on the menu.
I had my doubts that the Minutemen would even finish the season when I made a visit to their first practice on Aug. 15. I think I counted seven players, but assistant coach Chuck Hall insisted that the Minutemen would field a team. He spent a few minutes that day assuring the players who had shown up that several of their teammates had excused absences and that the season would go on.
But who really thought it would go on right through Nov. 2. Yet, there were the Minutemen in the Division III state championship game as a No. 7 seed.
It was an improbable march to the finals and the Minutemen were in it until the end — the dream only vanishing when Green Mountain’s James Anderson made his penalty kick in overtime.
What an unforgettable moment for Anderson in closing out his senior season, bringing Green Mountain Union High School its first boys soccer state championship with the 4-3 victory.
Mill River senior Tyler Regula showed his courage playing throughout the playoffs with a broken nose while not changing his aggressive approach to the position.
Windsor’s state title in field hockey wasn’t a surprise. We had the No. 1 Yellow Jackets as the favorite in Division III from the beginning.
But when you think about where they came from — a program without a varsity team just a few short years ago — their domination becomes a real story.
And winning a state semifinal game 5-0 and then capping the campaign by rolling to a 3-0 victory in the title game is about as dominating as it gets in field hockey.
Former coach Sandy Clary, the architect of the proud Windsor program, has to be pretty proud of coach Jody Wood and her 2019 state champions.
Yellow Jacket fans can be proud of the program’s meteoric rise following its return to varsity status as they dig into those blueberry pancakes.
Nobody can revel in Championship Saturday quite the way CVU fans can. How about a grand slam — taking home the hardware in boys and girls volleyball as well as in boys and girls soccer.
Go celebrate, Redhawk fans. The Grand Slam Slugger at Denny’s is in order.
Oh, and thanks for being with us, Ernie.
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