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Twenty of 34 teams have winning records in VT football

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Created on Friday, 23 September 2011 16:43

Written by Bill Murphy

The haves certainly outweigh the have nots in Vermont High School Football. There are twenty teams across divisions with winning records and fourteen teams with losing records. In addition, some of those losing teams have a shot at making the play-offs or are pretty good teams themselves. Vermont High School Football is alive and well.

One team with a losing record  fields a tough little team and that is Bellows Falls. One year ago, they were the Vermont Division III state champions. This years realignment put the Terriers in Division II. They clearly preferred to continue playing in Division II, but they were not given the choice. The committee was right about one thing. They could compete in Division II. They have not won yet, but they played three outstanding teams tough. They have lost to Fair Haven 33-18, Rice 13-8 and most recently Burr + Burton 35-34 in double overtime. This week, they most likely find out how they would have competed in the Division III ranks, as they host first place 3-0 Windsor at Hadley Field at 1 p.m. in a cross Division rivalry.

Chances are you heard during the week that this game was cancelled. It was at one time, now it is back on. Although this corner did not agree with the original decision to cancel, there were some valid contributing factors they based their thoughts on. In the end, they reevaluated the position and found a way to make it work. Intelligent fans will find a way to avoid future discussions of what took place. The game is being played and the kids of both communities are the winners and that is all that matters.

Bellows Falls fell to Burr + Burton in that overtime thriller that in all probability is in the nominatinion drawer along with the Milton/B+B contest for Game of the Year. The beginning and final moments of the Terrier loss to the Bulldogs was one for the ages. Jason Thomas was very uncoventional throughout the encounter. he started throwing curveballs (wrong sport we realize) from the start as he called for not one, but two onside kicks to start the game. His lads pulled off both attempts successfully and led 14-0 before the Falls knew what hit them.

Much later, Thomas' thinking cap was put to use again. The Terriers held a 22-21 lead and after they reeled off a 53 yard run to the Bulldog 1 with 1:20 remaining, Thomas knew his team was in deep doodoo. Taking a page from the annals of the NFL, Thomas ordered his team to let the Purple and White score on the next play. The Bulldogs could not afford any more time to run off the clock and they could not allow the extra points. "We thought they would throw to their tight end," (on the extra points attempt) " and we had him covered," Thomas offered. Letting the other team score is out of character in any game, but it was a necessity here for a win.

The Bulldogs prevailed in overtime and the Bulldog coach walked away with all the respect in the world for BF. "They are tough and scrappy and play hard from start to finish," Thomas offered of the Terriers. "They do what they do and they do it well. They have certainly become known in Division II," he continued about the team, who is yet to win.

Thomas is very impressed with his Division from top to bottom. Basically "anybody can beat anybody in a given week. This league is really tough," he pronounced. Burr + Burton meets another winless foe at homecoming this Saturday at 2 p.m. "Springfield may be 0-3, but we cannot take them lightly," Thomas says. Cosmos coach Jack Cohun agrees. "Our kids play hard," the Green and White mentor says, "and we expect to compete. We are going to surprise someone some week."

Spiraling back to the other nineteen winning teams in addition to Burr + Burton and Windsor, eight of them are in Division I, there are six more in Division II with four more in Division II.

This week in Division I where Hartford, Champlain Valley Union and Middlebury lead the pack at 3-0, there are seven games this weekend. The defending champion Hurricanes host 1-2 Brattleboro on Friday night, the same time Middlebury goes to Rutland trying to keep their part of the top spot. CVU will be at home on Saturday hosting a good 2-1 St. Johnsbury eleven. In what just might be the match-up of the week in Division I, Colchester 2-1 is at Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans 2-1 on Friday night. The Bobwhites topped South Burlington (also 2-1) last week and now are faced with a strong Colchester team, whose only loss is to Hartford and their two wins are over winless Division I teams. It looks like BFA is headed to the postseason one way or another. This game should prove to be a barometer for Colchester's strength.

BFA coach Geoff Murray knows every time his team takes the field for the rest of the year they will be playing for homefield advantage in the play-offs. Under the eight team set-up for 2011, this weekends games mark the halfway point in Division I. Four teams will earn homefield for the first round and two of them will gain the advantage a second time. Murray knows the more winning efforts from now on, the better the chance. "We like to play at home. This becomes even more important in late October and November. This is a tough division. It is important to keep winning," he related in a conversation Thursday evening. Murray toldThe Northeast Sports Network that his team "takes each week as a mini-season and we cannot let down in any week." He also said "that we actually gained some confidence in the loss to Hartford and we were able to carry it into the South Burlington win."

In the remaining Division I tests this week, South Burlington(2-1) is at Burlington (1-2) on Friday night, while on Saturday there a couple of showdowns between 0-3 teams, Essex is at Mount Mansfield and Mount Anthony is at Spauding in 1:00 encounters.

Milton (over Rice 28-7) and North Country (over Fair Haven 28-26) won showdown games in Division II last week to be tied for the top spot at 3-0. Both teams will be in action on Saturday as Milton is at Otter Valley (2-1) and North Country is at Rice (2-1). Additional Division II games not already mentioned this weekend, include an itra-division match-up with Poultney (1-2/Div III) at Fair Haven 2-1 Friday night and U-32 (0-3) at Lyndon (2-1) on Saturday.

The aforementioned Windsor leads the way in Division III play with Bellows Free Academy of Fairfax, Mill River, Winooski and Montpelier all at 2-1 just a step behind. Woodstock, Mount Abbraham, Poultney and Oxbow are 1-2 in Division III with Mount Saint Joseph the only winless entry.

To some people Winooski's spot near the top is a surprise, but Spartan coach Josh Safran saw it coming. "I thought we would be better than we were lat year at 4-4. This is a big week in our season," he said, continuing "Woodstock is on our list. They are the same as last year. They started slow and now they are coming on. I told our players we (our program) is still climbing up the cliff. We have one foot in the water and it feels good, but it is time to be comfortable and play. We gained a ton of respect in ourselves in the Windsor game ( a close 34-32 defeat) and we have to keep it going." Woodstock is at Winooski Friday night. The teams with the better records are likely the favorites in the other four weekend Division III matches with Friday night seeing Mount Saint Joseph at Montpelier while on Saturday, Milton is at Otter Valley, Mill River is at Mount Abraham and BFA at Oxbow (2pm kick-off). All games on Friday kick-off at 7 pm and Saturdays games are at 1 p.m. unless otherwise noted. There is an interesting Division III contest early next week (Thursday) Montpelier at Windsor to be played at Hartford.