By Bill Murphy
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Two area field hockey teams are undefeated and have basically been unchallenged along the way. Division 1 Bellows Falls is 6-0 and have outscored their competition 29-4. Division 3 Windsor is 5-0 and has tallied 27 goals, while surrendering just three. They are headed on a collision course But, there will be no collision.
The truth is, they were included on each others schedule, but, despite the fact that they huffed and they puffed, they couldn’t make their game happen. They were scheduled to meet early this season, However, Vermont didn’t begin the 2020 season on time and although the two programs attempted to play, field hockey being field hockey, it never happened.
Bellows Falls coach Bethany Coursen tells us, “even though we missed the date we tried to reschedule, but, we weren’t able to find a date where we could have referees, so instead we scrimmaged. We played to a tie. It was good for both of us. Jody has a great program.”
Jody Wood, the Jackets head coach values games against the iron of the south, despite the fact, these teams may be in a higher division. She said they lost, “games with Bellows Falls and Burr & Burton which would have strengthened our program.”
Bellows Falls claims a road victory over Burr & Burton 2-1 in overtime on their resume and meet up with the Bulldogs in the season finale at home on Friday. Windsor’s top wins have come over strong Division 2 contenders Woodstock 3-0 and Otter Valley 4-1. They will finish unbeaten if they can defeat both Brattleboro and Springfield, teams they have outdistanced by a combined 15-1 earlier this season.
Coursen’s Terriers have eight different goal scorers in their six games and are led by Maya Waryas with 11 goals. Ashlynn Maxfield is second in the goal department with 4, Sadie Scott, Jules Mcdermid and Ashlynn Boucher have found the net 3 times with Grace Wilkinson and Grace Bazin each netting 2 and Ava Laross has the other score. Jaia Caron has been the Purple and White standout in goal.
For Wood’s Yellow Jackets, their top scorers are Hannah Wood with 6 goals and 3 assists, Karen Kapacinski with 3 goals and 5 assists, Alyssa Slocum, who has 3 goals and 5 assists, Ashley Grela netting 5 goals with 2 assists, Meagan Holling has added 3 goals and Alexina Peckinpaugh came up with 2 goals and an assist and Peyton Richardson had 2 goals. Goalkeeper Glenna Ricard serves as one of the cores of the team.
Springfield is the other area Vermont school playing field hockey and they have had a tough season to date standing at 0-4, but, playing strong games versus Brattleboro 2-1 and Woodstock 4-1 falling short in both, The Eagle Times was unable to reach Coach Steve Lawrence for any comment on the growth of his team.
Officiating policy questioned
There are numerous high school athletic differences between Vermont and New Hampshire during this Covid fall and New Hampshire gets most of the plaudits from the majority of the fans with their more liberal approach to sports Most people applaud the Granite State allowing athletes to play tackle football, the allowance of volleyball indoors and other small tweeks in the sporting world. One Granite State direction not in favor of most people I speak to, is that officials are not required to wear masks. In Vermont, they must, in New Hampshire, they feel faint whistles may be a safety issue when wearing a mask. To me that creates conflicting safety issues, the spread of Covid 19 against possible continued play by one athlete which ends up in injury to another. What’s your choice?
Vermont’s area football week
Windsor enters play this week as the area’s premier 7 on 7 football team with a 4-1 record. Last week the Jackets handled Bellows Falls 34-14 and 34-7.leaving the Terriers 0-4. On the surface, it isn’t surprising that the BF team is having troubles adapting to a sport that accentuates the passing game, because the passing game is most usually an afterthought as part of Bob Lockerby’s offensive package. Lockerby says though, “we are beginning to get use to it. Lately we are getting the ball spread around better. Both the coaches and the players are getting better at this part of the game.” Caden Haskell, Patrick Barbour and Logan Lisai tallied the BF touchdowns this week with Jeb Monier kicking the conversions. BF is at Brattleboro tomorrow night and then will be home Saturday at 3 p.m versus Brattleboro.
Coach Greg Balch’s Jackets continue to light up the scoreboard on offense. When a team averages 34 points for a week, they have done a lot of scoring. Logan Worrall contributed four touchdowns in the first victory of the week over BF. Jordan Place and Mason Fortin spearheaded the offense as the teams two quarterbacks. Other players with Windsor TD’s against BF were by Austin Gauld, who had three, Kaleb Swett, Owen Abrahamsen and Jordan Hart. Swett converted eight extra point kicks in the two wins.
Balch’s team isn’t just winning, the coach sees improvement week to week. He told us, “we are catching the ball better every week and we are growing in many ways, especially on defense.” Windsor has Springfield as an opponent this week, hosting the Cosmos on Wednesday at 4 p.m. before traveling to Brown Field for a 7 p.m. night contest Friday.
Todd Aiken’s Cosmos continue to play good football. Last week they fell twice to a very strong and athletic Hartford team that appears to be getting better every time out. Both games were strong defensive battles. Hartford won the midweek contest at home 14-7 before breaking a scoreless first half tie Friday night by tallying 21 second half points in a 21-0 victory. Logan Roundy scored the lone Cosmo TD for the week.
Aiken remarked that, “Hartford has all kinds of athletes and are a very good team. The first game was a defensive match. We had three interceptions, but they had two too and came out on top.” Aiken is looking forward to this weeks encounters with Windsor. “Right now, they are as big as rival as we have since we are in the same division. These games will be big and we are looking forward to them.”
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