By Tom Haley
Staff Writer
CASTLETON, Vt. — Ever since Keene’s Davis Bradley completed a touchdown pass with 2:30 remaining to lift New Hampshire to a 12-7 victory in the first Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl in 1954, quarterbacks from Vermont and New Hampshire have put their mark on the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.
There was Mount St. Joseph Academy’s Mike Keenan who threw a Maple Sugar Bowl record six touchdown passes to lead Vermont to a 47-40 win over New Hampshire in 2000.
Montpelier’s Rex Martin delivered one of the most memorable performances in 1973 when he was inserted into the game with less than four minutes left and Vermont trailing 21-9. He helped engineer the greatest comeback in the series of this all-star football game between the top recent high school graduates of the two states.
“I was just happy to get in the game,” he said from his home in Florida the year the Maple Sugar Bowl turned 50 years old.
He did far more than get in the game. Vermont won 22-21.
Brattleboro quarterback Ben Gilbert was the architect of another Vermont comeback victory for coach Mike Norman’s team in 1998. Vermont trailed 13-0 and roared back to win 21-13.
There have been so many more QBs and on Saturday, Vermont’s Bassiru Diawara of Burlington-South Burlington and Hartford’s Cole Jasmin, along with New Hampshire’s Cody Bannon and Cody Clements will try to put their own stamp on the Shrine Bowl history book.
Vermont head coach Chad Pacheco (Brattleboro) said the plan at this time is to have Diawara and Jasmin alternate series in the opening quarter and then see how the game progresses from there.
“We are definitely similar but we are different sizes,” Diawara said. “He is 6-foot-4 and I am like 5-foot-11.
“I am a little more of a mobile quarterback. We have different playing styles.”
“Bass is a make-you-miss kind of runner. Cole is more of a put-you-head down kind of runner,” Pacheco said. “We feel good about both of them.”
Pacheco said that Diawara being left-handed could add a dimension by confusing the New Hampshire defense.
Diawara said the key component to get down now is the timing with the receivers.
“We are all new to each other. We’ve got really good receivers,” Diawara said.
New Hampshire head coach Paul Landry said that Bannon and Clements are very similar.
Plymouth’s Bannon and Salem’s Clements both played in systems that deployed a three-back set, something that meshes with Landry’s scheme with the Shrine team.
“They have very quick feet and they are efficient at throwing the ball,” Landry said.
Not surprisingly, much of the pregame talk is about the fact that New Hampshire played regular 11-man, tackle football in 2020 and Vermont, due to COVID protocol, played the 7-on-7, pass only, touch football.
“It is a definite advantage for us even though we had a modified season. But we got to play five games and we hit in the preseason,” Landry said.
The Vermont linemen are having to adjust to blocking and tackling for the first time since 2019.
“The hardest adjustment is for them because so many teams all have different blocking schemes,” Pacheco said.
Rutland lineman Joey Pratico is elated to be back playing football again.
“It is nice to come back to what you really like to do and get in the trenches and not worry about learning routes,” Pratico said.
One player jumping out at Pacheco in the first two days of camp is Fair Haven’s Kohlby Murray who could play receiver or help about anywhere else.
“We played against him and knew how athletic he was but it is so much better having him on your side,” Pacheco said.
He is also enamored of CVU running back Seth Boffa, a runner who is built to help the Vermonters control the ball.
“He loves contact,” Pacheco said.
Boffa will major in Environmental Science at Middlebury College and is hoping to walk on to the football team.
The St. Johnsbury tandem of Jaden Hayes and Zebb Winot have had a strong early camp and Pacheco is looking to them to anchor the defense as inside linebackers.
Pacheco’s plan is to amp everything up early in the week and then taper down as it gets close to game day.
“We want them fresh on Saturday,” he said.
tom.haley @rutlandherald.com
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