Hungry Jacks Handle Woodstock

By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WINDSOR, Vt. — Although the Yellow Jackets took care of Woodstock on Saturday with a 43-26 win, they are still not happy. “We have taken care of business but now we need to step it up to the next level. The season starts right now,” said Jacks Head Coach Greg Balch.

Windsor would get it going early on the back of Maison Fortin who got outside and flew 44 yards for the first Windsor score, but Woodstock came to play. Caeden Perreault would find a hole and race 55 yards into Windsor territory then the Wasps huge fullback Connor Dinn tied the game 7-7 with after he bullied his way into the end zone from 1-yard out.

With Woodstock putting a spy on Fortin trying to limit his damage, Fortin dropped back and found Rodger Petermann with a fingertip catch for a big 21-yard gain. “I think Travis is rubbing off on me, I’m starting to get that nasty feeling on the field like he does,” said Petermann. Fortin went to the air again and hit Travis McAllister as Windsor had grabbed the lead back 14-7 after Olivia MacLeay made the second of her five extra-point kicks as the Jacks looked out of sorts.

Fortin led the Yellow Jacket defense with a sack and McAllister broke up a pass, but disaster hit Windsor when the punt got caught up in the wind and ended up in the hands of Woodstock at the 11-yard line. Logan Worrall met Dinn head on for a big stop, but the Wasps went for it on fourth down and Perreault slipped around the end and into the endzone to make it 14-14 as the teams ended the half.

“We were in the same situation at Springfield, we need more urgency, we can’t wait for our coaches to motivate us at halftime,” said Bradley Bowers. Whatever the coaching staff said worked because the Jacks were a whole different team in the third quarter. After a big hit by Avery Bean, Worrall recovered the fumble and Windsor was back on track. Maison wasted little time and raced around the corner for a 45-yard touchdown making it 21-14 Windsor. On Woodstock’s next possession, Corey Lockwood and Dante Roy made big time tackles forcing a Wasp punt that got away from the punter with McAllister making the tackle deep in Wasp territory.

Fortin would score again for the Jacks as he just followed his center, Charles Palmer into the endzone upping the lead to 28-14. “Palmer is such a good player, a tough player,” said Fortin. With defensive coach Jamie Richardson’s headset inactive because of a “technical issue”, he was screaming instructions onto the field. That message was loud and clear as the Jacks defense was everywhere. A bad snap let the pigskin sit on the ground for a moment while Jacks lineman Dante Roy and Woodstock QB Ashley Emery were the only ones who noticed. ”I locked eyes with him for a split second, I knew I had him, nobody on the field even knew what was happening for a few seconds,” said Roy as he recovered the fumble. Windsor was feeling the momentum as Brody Osgood ran 12 yards on a reverse to give Windsor a big 35-14 lead entering the final quarter.

Woodstock would respond with a 65-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Vincent Petrone cutting the lead to 43-20, then Windsor coughed up the ball giving Woodstock great field possession. Emery would connect with Charles Rice to slice the lead to 43-26 but that was as close as Woodstock would get as Windsor completed their perfect regular season. “I expected a battle today and that’s just what we got” said the Jacks Tydus Percy.

Although Windsor had just completed an 8-0 regular season, things were not all sunshine in the post-game speeches. “There will be no excuses starting right now, everyone is coming at us, and we need to take it up a notch,” said Balch. Richardson wasn’t so diplomatic. “I’m not happy one bit, this was a wake-up call, starting Monday, we will work as hard as we ever have, you better be ready!”

“Do you want to be a championship team?” asked assistant coach James Perry?

Windsor earned the #1 seed in the Division 3 playoffs and are scheduled to host #8 seed Springfield on Saturday at 1PM.