By Bill Murphy
EAGLE TIMES CORRESPONDENT
Bellows Falls and Fall Mountain had narrow halftime leads in the second week of area high school football action. The Terriers opened things up offensively in the second half, while the Wildcats scored enough to jump start their way into the victory column for the first time this fall.
Bob Lockerby was not a happy camper at intermission of the Bellows Falls 35-14 triumph over Fair Haven. He told us following the contest, “I told them why are you just passively playing football and not playing the way you are capable of playing? I told them we weren’t playing with much excitement, enthusiasm, or heart and I challenged them to show up in the second half and show what they were capable of,” and that’s what they did.
Lockerby’s eleven outscored the Slaters 28-6 after intermission and then the Slaters tacked on one touchdown against a defense with a number of reserves in purple uniforms at the end.
The only touchdown of the first half came when first-year polished quarterback Jamison Nystrom found Eli Allbee on a 15-yard scoring play with 5:18 left before the break, ceasing a until then scoreless tie. Following Lockerby’s halftime message Bellows Falls scores were delivered fast and furious. Walker James ran one in from 5 yards out to complete the first purple possession after intermission culminating a 70 plus yard drive.
Fair Haven narrowed the count to 14-6 but then three more Purple Gang drives on consecutive possessions put the game out of reach at 35-6. James tallied big touchdown plays. The first came in the closing moments of the third quarter on a 33-yard aerial from Nystrom and then early in the final stanza James broke tackles on an off-tackle play racing 24 yards to the end zone. for another score. Caden Haskell added one final rushing TD of 10 yards with 5:53 to play for Bellows Falls. Nystrom stands alone in the Terrier record books because over the first two games he has converted 13 straight extra-point kicks
Bellows Falls and Mount Anthony are on a collision course Friday evening in Bennington. The two teams met in the 2021 Division II title game with Bellows Falls claiming the title and both have started 2-0 this season. Lockerby says, “MAU hasn’t forgotten that game. There is no doubt we have a target on our back. We expect a heck of a football game.”
Fall Mountain won an important game in the Granite State Division III race. They bested Kearsarge, who had defeated ConVal the opening week, laying claim to a 14-6 victory. Max Vogel found the end zone on short scoring runs (2 and 10 yards) to assure the Cats victory. Cat Zach Patch had 100 yards rushing on the day and ran in the extra points conversion.
One can tell by the final score both teams came to play defense on the day, but, both teams stood especially tall in stopping their opponents once each well inside the red zone.
Fall Mountain Coach Orion Binney was very pleased to hold an 8-0 advantage after one quarter and of how the Cats defense played overall. He told us, “Our defense played well as a whole and Brandon Bator, Porter Willett, Vince Rende and Danny Farnham really stood out.” Binney also noted Josh Devore had two standout catches for 60 yards in the game.
The Cats are now 1-1 and Binney pointed out that this Kearsarge victory “was a good confidence builder that’s for sure.” Kearsarge had the only TD of the second quarter cutting the lead to 8-6, but then the Cats put together a shutdown defense which wouldn’t allow the Cougars to score again. Vogel’s second score came with 10 minutes left.
The Fall Mountain home opener is this Friday night with kick-off in Langdon taking place at 7 p.m. as 1-1 Epping comes to town with both teams looking to sport a winning record at games end.
Todd Aiken’s Springfield team fell to an offensively talented Bellows Free Academy of Fairfax eleven 42-18 before yet another good-sized crowd at Brown Field. The final score doesn’t indicate it, but Aiken felt his team showed improvement “and we were in it for quite a while.”
Eventually mistakes and injuries added up and caught up with the Cosmos, but, Aiken felt, “we showed a lot of life at times and although mistakes led to several BFA points (including a 15-0 lead at the outset), we grew tonight overall and didn’t make anywhere near as many mistakes.”
Carson Clark threw three touchdown passes on the night and continued to show the growth he has gained during his freshman and sophomore seasons. In fact, Clark teamed up twice with Tanner Gintof, including a first half score (20 yards) which narrowed the Cosmos deficit to 15-6. A while later it was a 21-6 game and Springfield was close to making it a one score game when unfortunately, they fumbled as they approached the BFA goal line, and the northerners dominated after that.
Clark’s two other scoring strikes went to Gintof (15 yards) and Luke Stocker (22 yards). The 15-yard connection with Gintof culminated a 75-yard drive and had the Green and White within single digits at 21-12. Springfield hits the road for the first time this season Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest with Otter Valley in Brandon. Both teams stand 0-2.
Like Aiken with Springfield, Stevens Coach Josh Duford felt despite his teams’ final score, the Cardinals made strides against a tough division opponent, who for the second straight week shutout the opposition, this time 26-0. Duford relayed to us that “the score didn’t tell the story. The defense played very well and met them with physicality.” This Monadnock team shutout Fall Mountain 34-0 a week ago.
The Cards were in the red zone twice in the first half, including in their opening drive when a field goal attempt failed. The second unsuccessful drive ended in a much more impactful way. Stevens was two scores down and anticipating cutting the score (14-0) in half when a Card fumble was scooped up and returned most of the length of the field for a score raising the count to 20-0 in the second quarter. Despite the final margin, Duford offered, “the defense held strong all day. Just four turnovers did us in.” Offensively, Kaden Thyne had his second straight 100 yard receiving day.
Stevens will enjoy their home opener Friday night at Barnes Park at 7 p.m. They will host the Campbell Camels who have outscored their first two opponents 81-8 so that Card defense will get an extreme test.
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