By Bill Murphy
EAGLE TIMES CORRESPONDENT
For the second time in three weeks, a defending state champion area football team met up with the opponent they faced in last year’s state title game and in each case, the local eleven turned back a football team which was raring to go on their home field looking to get even with the title winners who had spoiled their day in the sun.
Last Friday night Bellows Falls suppressed Mount Anthony 28-13. Two weeks ago, Windsor had the same result with their challenger Bellows Free Academy of Fairfax 40-33. Both local squads are now in the driver’s seat, however, both coaches will be quick to tell you, “There’s a long ways to go.” The Yellow Jackets have won twice since, including this weeks’ 46-6 victory over Milton. Both teams are 3-0 and on track to be in the title hunt in Vermont Divisions ll and lll this fall grid season.
Mount Anthony fell behind Bellows Falls 14-0 with a little more than two minutes to go in the first half in Bennington, but then an air connection with MAU’s best player Ayman Nasser on the receiving end with less than ten seconds left in the half halved the score, BUT……… ………..
That BUT changed the momentum of the contest. The Terriers had that momentum first gaining the 14-0 lead, but the Bennington edition of the Patriots, were sky high after the Nasser td, BUT Nasser was a little too excited illegally spiking the ball in the end zone, resulting in his ejection for his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of the game and all the momentum from that point on, shifted the Purple and White way.
Bob Lockerby’s team scored on their first possession of the second half reestablishing the Purple as the flavor of the night. MAU had five unsportsmanlike penalties in the get together to BF’s none and they were costly.
Lockerby preaches discipline and keeping your head to his team, and it is often a deciding factor in games like this. He told us, “Discipline and emotion are huge in the sport of football. Generally, we don’t hurt ourselves often with big penalties. We played very disciplined the other night in the Mount Anthony win.”
The contest was scoreless for almost a quarter and a half before Terrier Caden Haskell scored the first of his three touchdowns with 7:21 remaining before intermission on a 2-yard run. Less than five minutes later, quarterback Jamison Nystrom snuck one in from a yard away for a 14-0 advantage. Then just before the halfway mark came the huge double momentum swinging play, in which the Patriots scored BUT, immediately lost their most important performer.
Lockerby’s Purple Gang took no time establishing themselves in the second half as Haskell tallied again on a 7-yard run just over two minutes following the second half kick-off for a 21-7 lead. His third score of the game came later in the third quarter on a 3-yard tally making the count 28-7. Nystrom kicked the extra point after each BF touchdown and now has converted 17 straight on the season. We are wondering here if any kicker in the area has ever had a streak as long as that?
An MAU score to open the final stanza cut the margin to 28-13 and the MAU defense held the Falls the next possession, but when the hosts put together a good drive, it all came to an end with a Curtis Greene interception for the Terriers. BF has a Saturday afternoon game that 1 p.m. this week at Union-32 in East Montpelier.
Greg Balch’s Yellow Jackets had no problem with the Milton team which was moved from Division II to Division III for the first time this season. It was less than a half dozen years ago, the northern swarm of the Yellow Jackets were perennial contenders in Division II. Last Friday night they couldn’t contend with Balch’s crew falling 46-6.
It did take Windsor a little while to get things in gear as the first quarter concluded 8-6, but the southern swarm of Jacks was buzzing by halftime with a 28-6 advantage. Logan Worrall, who ran for over 130 yards in the encounter had three touchdowns for Windsor, Travis McAllister rushed for 114 yards and two scores which included a 40-yard aerial strike from the arm of Maison Fortin. Brody Osgood and Gavin Martin added 63 and 51 yards rushing respectively.
Balch praised the offensive front saying, “the line was led by center Charles Palmer,” and he was flanked by “ Rodger Petermann, Bradley Bowers, Vance Martin, Avery Bean and Tydus Percy all played well against a physical Milton team that played us much tougher than the final score indicated.”
The 3-0 Jacks continue facing former Division II foes (also Division I of late) when they host Rice Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. A big crowd is expected in Windsor for that match-up.
The Newport Tigers found the win column for the second straight week racing past Winnisquam 48-19. Like Windsor, the going was a little difficult early with a 7-6 advantage following one quarter, but the count had risen to 41-0 by halftime and most observers had stopped counting at all by then.
Newport scored first when quarterback Kyle Ashley went to the air and found Kayden LaClair on a 20-yard scoring play. Eric Wilkinson added the first of his five conversions.
Tiger scores came fast and furious in the second quarter when they tallied five touchdowns. In order, first Wilkinson tallied from 4 yards out, then Ashley hooked up with LaClair again, this one covering 39 yards and before the dust settled on that one the two worked their magic again on a 50 yard catch and run. Before the half arrived, Wilkinson and Tyler Gobin had scoring runs of 5 and 4 yards respectively. The final Tiger touchdown was in the fourth quarter with Wilkinson finding paydirt for the third time on a 3-yard run.
Coach John Proper said to us that, “the emphasis of the week was to come out attacking on defense,” he continued saying, “We started a little flat the first game and we were a little too aggressive on the first drive, which led to a touchdown, but they settled in after that.”
Proper also noted “Tyler Gobin led the ground attack (close to 200 yards rushing) behind our best offensive line play of the season which also allowed Kyle Ashley time in the pocket.” Proper noted the top defensive standouts being Timmy Fratzel, Makyi Matheson and Ashley.
Newport hosts Newfound Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
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