By Adam Aucoin
THE RUTLAND HERALD
With temperatures higher than usual this time of year, thoughts of early autumn football creep into your mind, a time when teams were just figuring things out.
The feeling on the gridiron differs. The time of figuring out what works best is long in the past. It’s go time for the 24 remaining high school football teams.
Dreams of hoisting a state championship trophy on Rutland High School’s Alumni Field in two weeks are squarely in mind.
Two games stand in the way of having at shot at fulfilling those dreams. It all starts this weekend.
DIVISION I: Top-seeded CVU knows the feeling of State Championship Saturday. The Redhawks were there last year and came up just short against rival Essex.
CVU has been on a mission to get back there this fall and the rest of the state has struggled to match the standard.
The Redhawks come into the weekend perfect playing in-state competition. Burr and Burton, Essex, Middlebury and St. Johnsbury, all who had great regular seasons, couldn’t stop the powerful CVU attack.
The No. 8 seed Seawolves will take their best shot at knocking off the Redhawks on Saturday in Hinesburg. The team is used to his kind of pressure. Just last fall, they hung with then undefeated Rutland in the same round, before RHS pulled away.
The teams met once in the regular season, a three-touchdown win for CVU.
The winner of that game will take on the winner of the game between No. 4 Essex and No. 5 St. Johnsbury in Essex on Friday, a game that has potential to be the game of the weekend in D-I.
The Hornets responded after losing the first two games of their title defense to then win five of six to close the season. Guys like Charlie Bowen and Joshua Brown are leaders of a confident Essex group.
St. Johnsbury has been similarly hot as of late. Quarterback Quinn Murphy has put up a truly special season and has weapons around him that make the Hilltoppers as dangerous as any team in the state.
No. 2 seed BBA has hit some rough patches at the end of the season. After winning their first five games, they dropped two of their last three games.
Reading into those losses as struggles would be an overreaction though. The Bulldogs lost to powerhouse CVU by three points and fell to Middlebury by six last week.
Jack McCoy has been one of top signal callers in the state and guys like Conor McMahon, Michael Crabtree and Trevor Greene provide him all the help he needs.
BBA will be looking to get back to a familiar place on State Championship Saturday, where it was most recently at in 2019.
The beginning of that journey is a matchup with seventh-seeded Rutland on Saturday in Manchester. RHS struggled down the stretch and is dealing with injuries, but many of its players have the experience that pays off this time of year.
The winner of the BBA-Rutland game takes on the winner of the game between No. 3 Middlebury and Hartford.
The Tigers come in winners of three straight, including the biggest of them all last week against BBA. The Hurricanes snapped a three-game skid with two wins to end the year.
The last time Middlebury and Hartford met, it was the Tigers winning by one point.
DIVISION II: Bellows Falls is undefeated and has to be considered the favorite to hoist the hardware again this season, but the Division II tournament could provide twists and turns with the talented teams involved.
The Terriers open up their playoff run, hosting No. 8 Spaulding Friday night. BF and the Crimson Tide met in Week 6, where the Terriers’ dominant attack, led by running back Caden Haskell, put up 62 points.
Spaulding did score 35 points, the second most of any Bellows Falls opponent, but did so against a mostly junior varsity group in the second half.
The winner of that game has a date with the winner of the No. 4 Brattleboro-No. 5 Colchester game.
Both teams are surely confident coming in. The Colonels had won four straight games, two of which against impressive opponents, before falling to Mount Anthony last week.
The Lakers had a bumpy reintroduction into Division II, but closed the season winning four of six games.
Third-seeded Fair Haven has been a fixture in the state semifinals for much of the last decade. The Slaters didn’t get there last year, but were in the state semifinals or finals in the four seasons previous.
Getting back to that stage won’t be easy with No. 6 Lyndon Institute coming to town Saturday night.
The teams played in the regular season where the the Vikings hung around, before Fair Haven just took over.
No. 7 seed North Country made the nearly 200-mile trip from the top of the state to the bottom of it to play their quarterfinal against Mount Anthony Thursday night.
DIVISION III: The quarterfinal between No. 4 Rice and No. 5 Mount Abraham, hosted by the Green Knights on Saturday afternoon, has the potential to be the best D-III game of the weekend.
The teams combined for 101 points when they met up in Week 6. The Eagles’ playoff hopes were looking shaky after that loss, but impressive wins against quality opponents Mill River and Oxbow safely solidified their case.
Whoever wins that game gets the winner of the game between No. 1 Windsor and No. 8 Springfield Saturday afternoon.
On paper, the Yellow Jackets look like the superior team with their undefeated record in tow, but the Cosmos gave Windsor quite the test in Week 6.
That game went into halftime tied at 14-14, before Windsor dominated after the break. The effort surely gave the Todd Aiken-led Cosmos some major hope heading into this weekend’s game.
The story has been similar for second-seeded BFA-Fairfax/Lamoille as it was last year. The Bullets’ lone loss in the regular season came to Windsor, who they also lost to in the state finals.
Fairfax/Lamoille would love to change that narrative in a few weeks if they meet again in the championship game. The Bullets will need to take care of No. 7 Otter Valley to begin the journey to that stage.
The Otters are coming off a dominant win against Missisquoi last week and held a powerful Fairfax attack to only 24 points in a loss the week before.
Third-seeded Mill River welcomes No. 6 Woodstock to town Saturday afternoon. The Minutemen will be more well-rested than anyone else in the state after having a Week 8 bye.
Mill River has had an impressive turnaround this year and one of its many statements was a Week 4 win on the road against the Wasps.
Can they do it again? It’s a question many teams are asking in the opening weekend of playoffs.
adam.aucoin @rutlandherald.com
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.