By Chris Laclair
Eagle Times Sports Editor
SPRINGFIELD, VT — Anyone who came to the peewee football games last Sunday, Sept. 24, in Springfield would have assumed it was a big high school playoff game. The crowd was large, and the speculation was huge: This size crowd is not usual.
Fans overflowed the benches, a validation of the commitment and support that the program and community invest into their athletes.
The first game of the morning paired the older sixth grade Springfield team against the Concord Capitals for a Snowbelt League matchup. Concord came out slinging the rock as they threw a bomb of a pass into Cosmo territory on the first play of the game. Capital Grady Jewett broke off a 30-plus-yard run down to the Cosmo 9-yard line. Amare Durgin ran right to punch it in for the quick lead. Brantley Anderson converted on conversion to put them up 7-0. (Please note, the scoring for conversion in these games was 1 point on the ground or air and 2 points for an extra “point” kick.)
Concord would take advantage of a quick 3-and-out that resulted in a punt, moving the ball quickly again down the field. Durgin would set up a 30-yard touchdown run from Eli Morse on a run of his own that set up the first down. He would again find Bryce Tuttle in the endzone on a beautiful pass to make the score 14-0.
The Cosmos would be forced to punt again after struggling to get a first down. Durgin would punish them with a huge run breaking several tackles to the 35-yard line. Tuttle would power his way down to the 11-yard which was negated by a block in the back flag, bringing the ball back to the 45-yard line. On fourth down needing 12 yards for the first, Durgin would keep the ball as he swept left for the touchdown. Corbin McKay would convert on a run for a 21-0 early lead.
Things didn’t look too hopeful after the Cosmos punted again; however, Ben Morse had his own plans.
He stripped the ball and recovered the fumble to give his team some life. Morse would show the larger Concord team what a speedy, determined running back looks like when he ran down the right sideline to break an 84-yard for a touchdown as the hometown fans cheered him on all the way to the endzone. They would fall short on the conversion for a 21-6 deficit.
The second half would see more of the same as the Cosmos struggled with their handoff exchanges. Morse would pull of his second amazing run of the game on fourth down and 4 from their own 34-yard line. He ran right again using his speed to break off another eye-opening run for 64 yards.
The game would end 40-12 in Concord’s favor, but the Cosmos never gave up even though they lacked the size and depth of the bigger Capitals team.
The second game of the morning was a closer matchup as the younger third and fourth grade team (fifth graders on the roster) Cosmo team showed a ton of heart against the bigger Concord squad.
Concord’s Owen Boutin took over the first possession of the game with a big run to open the game up. He followed that up with a sidestep to the right for a 25-yard touchdown run. The conversion was good for a quick 8-0 lead that felt a lot like the game played prior.
Springfield would go 3-and-out which resulted in a punt. The Cosmo defense would push them back on multiple stops from the line for a loss of yards. Things didn’t look too good on the next possession for the Cosmos as they faced a third down and 16 from their own 17-yard line. A false start would push them back another 5 yards, which didn’t seem to matter to Keaton Thurber as he broke free to the right for an 83-yard touchdown run. After the missed conversion, they felt confident with a close 7-6 deficit.
The second half started with another Thurber big Springfield run as he broke tackles for a 20-yard game to the Cosmo 40-yard line. Things fizzled out as they were forced to punt after failing to find any traction on the ground.
Thurber would come up big again with a booming punt that went all the way back to the Capitals 39-yard line. The Capitals would eat a lot of clock on a drive that brought them all the way down to the Cosmo 10-yard line. On a huge defensive stand on fourth down from the Cosmo line, they would stop the drive on the 5-yard line to take back possession.
The next series for the Cosmos would result in another big punt from Thurber to the 39-yard line of the Capitals again. The Capitals would take run the clock down on a methodical drive that resulted in a 10-yard touchdown run down the middle from Owen Boutin. Kyle Rosenberger would rush into the endzone to secure the game 14-6.
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