Brattleboro Bears Hibernate Terriers

By Bill Murphy
Eagle Times Correspondent
WESTMINSTER, VT — And then the lights went out… More on that later.

A mid-sized crowd filed into Hadley Field last Friday night (Oct. 6) to watch the newly anointed Brattleboro Bears surprise fans from both sides in attendance by capturing an offensive shootout 26-20 decision over the hometown Bellows Falls Terriers.

“We got beat by the better team tonight,” disappointed Terrier leader Bob Lockerby said at the conclusion of the contest, duly noting that: “They came to play and we made all the mistakes that you can’t make and win the game. I just told the team, if you turn the ball over three times, you usually don’t win at any level.”

The truth is, both teams turned the ball over again and again with most of the turnovers leading to scores by their opponent. This was the second straight weekend Hadley Field has been blessed to have a competitive hold your breath to the end battle. Fair Haven’s triumph one week ago was a contest played at a higher level than this one, but, at least they both kept the outcome in doubt until the stretch moments of the encounter.

The game’s first score didn’t come until the second quarter and wasn’t set up by a turnover. The Bears were on their second play of an eight play 83 yard drive as the stanza began. The final 57 yards came on a pass and run from the arm of Karson Elliott to the hands of Jackson Emery. Elliott’s conversion kick made it 7-0 Bears with 8:55 remaining until intermission.

Intermission would take place with the 7-0 advantage still showing on the scoreboard. The Terriers twice had turned over the football deep into Bear territory on a couple of fumbles, one at the 8-yard line and later at the 32 keeping the hosts without a score.

When the contest concluded, Lockerby could only see lost opportunities when he tried to recall the action. Besides three turnovers, they had costly penalties and had lost an incredible 63-yards of offense while allowing Cole Moore to be sacked six times.

The veteran coach told us: “We gave them all the energy they needed and we had a slew of penalties,” adding without taking a breath, “and we continually got beat off the ball. I told them it comes down to what’s inside you. You need to find out how bad you want to be in Rutland in November. I told you to play with energy and excitement. We did in moments, but we really didn’t. Every team has their own personality and right now we don’t know what this one’s is. We did come back and we were within a touchdown of winning. The reason we didn’t win was we didn’t play well enough early in the ballgame. We showed we weren’t going to quit. We’ve gotten that part. We have people who need to figure out how to come to practice with a purpose, that would really help a lot.”

Lockerby has a way of getting his message across in halftime speeches and this night was no exception. Walker James returned the second half kick-off to his own 40 and it only took three plays from the line of scrimmage for him to bust a TD run of 58-yards. James drew an unsportsmanlike penalty after the score pushing the extra point try back to the 18 and a pass his way didn’t find his hands for the necessary yardage leaving the Bears in front 7-6.

The Terriers defense kept the momentum going their way as they controlled the Bears on a three and out and took possession after a punt at their own 29. Unfortunately for the hosts, on the third play of the ensuing drive, they turned the ball over to Brattleboro on a fumble and the Bears struck quickly as Elliott hooked up with Alex Papadimitric on a 36-yard scoring play on first down. Elliott’s conversion made the count 13-6 with 6:24 left in the third quarter.

BF showed that don’t quit attitude going on a long 66-yard drive in 11 plays on their subsequent possession. James lugged the pigskin the final 2-yards with 2:26 left in the third and Tristan Boylan’s conversion kick knotted the contest at 13-13.

At this point in the proceedings it was plain old offensive football. The Bears were determined next and their five play, 67-yard drive found the end zone a little over two minutes into the contests’ final 12 minutes.

Elliott used his legs on the drive’s biggest play, rushing the ball on a third and three 25-yards to the BF 15. Two plays later, Elliott found Emery in the end zone who made an acrobatic catch prior to Elliott’s conversion and a 20-13 lead.

Lockerby’s crew would keep the offense goin, picking up two first downs on their next possession but two sacks in three plays near midfield gave the Bears respectable field position to begin their final scoring drive of the game.

Elliott again showed he knew how to convert himself on third down plays as he called his own number and rushed through the other Purple and White team 48-yards for the winning score with 2:37 left in the game. Moore intercepted the conversion attempt but by then it was 26-13 Brattleboro.

Showing the no quit personality Lockerby said the Terriers possess, Moore found Blake Bertrand on first down for a 37-yard pass and run play and then following a Brattleboro tackle for loss, Moore hooked up with James on a 37-yard scoring play and with 1:52 on the clock Boylan’s extra point kick made it 26-20.

The Terriers onside kick failed and three Brattleboro kneel downs later, BF was left with two straight Hadley Field losses, a 3-3 record and awaiting two final road games beginning this Saturday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m. on the Field in front of the Institute in Lyndon.

To conclude, not only did the Terriers come up short on the field but moments after Lockerby gave his post game presser with a good number of people hanging on and around Hadley Field the lights went out and everyone was left in the dark. Evidently, a transformer blew with sparks all around. It was a dark night for the Terriers but it appears there are still sparks keeping a title run alive.