By Adam Aucoin
RUTLAND HERALD
CASTLETON, Vt. — The Vermont Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl coaches made sure their players knew everything about the 2018 Vermont team that beat neighboring New Hampshire.
It was the last time the Green Mountain State had beaten the Granite Staters in the granddaddy of all high school all-star games in the state.
That is until Saturday. Vermont snapped a three-game losing skid against New Hampshire, winning the 70th incarnation of the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl 28-6 at Vermont State University Castleton’s Dave Wolk Stadium.
“Thursday night, we took them over to the auditorium and we showed them the 2018 game,” said Vermont coach Greg Balch, who coaches Windsor during the high school season. “It was nice, but a little surprising just how into that game they got. There was a lot of pride for them.
“You have a chance to break the New Hampshire streak and start your own or you can keep it going. They got a lot out of watching that 2018 team.”
The team also had a Vermont player from that 2018 team, Tucker Gaudette, who went on to be a standout lineman at Castleton, talk with the squad on Saturday.
“It’s a tremendous group of players, attitude and effort-wise and in every way you can imagine,” Balch said.
“We said it all week that we’re going to turn the tide,” said Otter Valley’s Keevon Parks. “We’re going to take that streak back and we’re going to put our foot down. We’re in the 802 and we are 802.”
Parks was a big part of the play that turned the tides of the game.
Vermont was leading 7-6 late in the first half, but New Hampshire was hoping to push ahead. New Hampshire quarterback Zach Doward, of Concord, let one rip down the right side of the field and was picked off by Essex’s Tanner Robbins.
Robbins darted down the sideline and got crucial blocks from Parks and Rutland’s Jaheim Hughes that helped clear his path to the end zone for the 73-yard pick-six.
“We were looking to make a play,” Parks said. “We said defense was going to win this game and we meant that.”
“Coming into this game, I was thinking I was going to get one and it worked,” Robbins said.
It was the second interception in as many drives by Robbins. He intercepted Doward with 2:28 left in the half, but Vermont had to punt on the ensuing drive.
“We have great receivers on this team and (Tanner) was doing a good job of being competitive with them all week, so we knew what we had there,” Balch said. “The pick-six, the timing was huge.”
New Hampshire struggled to get much going offensively in the second half. They turned the ball over on downs on their first drive, before punting on their next.
Bellows Falls’ Jamison Nystrom recovered a New Hampshire fumble on the ensuing drive and the Granite Staters had to punt on their next two chances.
As New Hampshire was sputtering, Vermont was hitting its stride.
Early in the fourth quarter, St. Johnsbury quarterback Quinn Murphy took a keeper into the end zone from 10 yards out, his second touchdown of the day, with the other coming in the second quarter.
The highlight play of the game came on the next Vermont drive, where Balch and the Green Mountain boys pulled out the hook-and-ladder.
CVU quarterback Max Destito hit Brattleboro’s Tristan Evans with a pass to the right side and Evans lateraled it back to Colchester’s Caleb Levasseur, who burst down the sideline for the final dagger of a touchdown.
“We knew we had some good plays. The hook-and-lateral is one that we worked on all week,” Balch said. “I’m not a trick play guy, but I was committed in this game to find a situation for it and that seemed like the right spot.”
Colchester has been known to use that play, so Levasseur being the one on the receiving end of it made all the sense in the world.
“We joked about it all week. We almost called the play ‘Colchester’, but instead, we gave it a name,” Balch said. “We didn’t really watch Colchester run it, but we knew that Caleb had a little bit of experience with it. We put him in that spot because we knew he had experience with it, but also because he’s lightning fast.”
Destito passed for 92 yards and the one touchdown to Levasseur. Murphy threw for 53 yards. Evans and CVU’s Alex Provost had two receptions apiece, while Spaulding’s Zack Wilson and BFA-Fairfax/Lamoille’s Shaun Gibson both had a reception.
Bellows Falls’ Caden Haskell led the Vermont rushing attack with 34 yards on nine carries. U-32 Crosse Gariboldi had 23 yards on the ground, while Mount Anthony’s Ayman Naser had 16 and Levasseur had 10 yards, among a handful of others in single digits.
Rutland’s Jonah Bassett averaged 27 yards on his two kick returns with one going for 41 yards.
Hartford’s Connor Tierney led the defense with seven tackles. Parks had five tackles and one sack, while Essex’s Peter Armata had five tackles.
New Hampshire scored its lone touchdown in the first quarter on a 1-yard rush by Ryan Lover. The three-play drive was set up by an errant snap on a Vermont punt.
The Vermont win made the all-time series 50-17-2 in New Hampshire’s favor.
NOTES: The attendance for Saturday’s contest was 4,200….Saturday’s game was the first game played on the new turf that was installed this summer at Dave Wolk Stadium….VTSU Castleton’s season opener at Dave Wolk Stadium is on Sept. 2 against Plymouth State University…Rutland’s Bassett and MAU’s Josh Worthington will be playing for Plymouth State, while Shrine teammates Parks, Hughes, Caleb Russell and Cameron Stone will be playing for Castleton, along with New Hampshire’s Hollis Jones and Lucas Smith.
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