Articles

Norwich defeats Castleton for The Maple Sap Bucket

Details

Created on Saturday, 08 October 2011 22:20

Written by Jack Healey

Kris Sabourin (Georgia, Vt.) set the tone early for
Norwich, taking the opening play from scrimmage 63-yards for a
touchdown, en route to a game-high 229 yards in the Cadets’ 40-21 win
over Castleton in the annual “Battle for the Bucket” at Spartan
Stadium.

The Sap Bucket Trophy remains in Northfield for the third-straight
season of this budding rivalry, but more importantly, Norwich improved
to 3-0 in Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) play.

After Sabourin’s opening touchdown run, Castleton’s first drive
stalled early in Norwich territory forcing a punt, resulting in a
touchback. Sabourin then orchestrated an 11-play, 80-yard drive the
culminated with an Andrew Fulford (Gloucester, Mass.) touchdown from 18
yards out.

Another Stew Quinn (Newton, N.J.) punt pinned the Cadets at their own
eight-yard line, and a delay of game penalty backed them up to their own
four. Once again, it was Sabourin to the rescue. After a Derrick Pitts
(Schenectady, N.Y.) six-yard rush put the Cadets at their own 10, the
reigning ECFC Offesnice Co-Player of the Year, faked an inside hand off
to Fulford, broke a tackle and raced 90-yards for his second touchdown.
A Long Ding (Qing Dao, China) extra point made it 21-0 with four minutes
remaining in the first period.

After a Spartan three-and-out, Norwich strung together 18 plays, using
Pitts, Fulford and Danny Triplett (Haverill, Mass.) to methodically
grind away yardage. After 10 minutes and 67 yards, the Spartans were
able to keep Norwich out of the end zone, forcing Ding to convert a
25-yard field goal to make it 24-0.

The Spartans answered with their first scoring drive of the afternoon,
going seven plays and 70 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Shane
Brozowski (Rensselaer, N.Y.), the other half of Sabourin’s Offensive
Co-Player of the Year award, completed six-of-seven passes on the drive
and Tyler Carpenter (Fort Edward, N.Y.) powered in from the six-yard
line to make it 24-7.

Norwich tacked on two more touchdowns before halftime, pushing the lead
to 37-7 at the interval. Fulford broke free for a 50-yard run, and
Sabourin found the end zone for the third time in the half on a two-yard
bootleg.

The Spartans cut the deficit to 37-14 on a one-yard touchdown plunge
from Carpenter to open the scoring in the second half, capping a
13-play, 95-yard drive. Brozowski found Mike Patterson (Jackson, N.J.)
for a pair of key receptions on the drive, one to for nine yards to
convert on a fourth-and-eight, and another that went for 30 yards down
to the Norwich three yard line.

Castleton’s defense limited the Cadets to just three points in the
second half on a 41-yard field goal from Ding that easily would have
split the uprights from 50-yards plus on the following possession.

Brozowski found Adam Farmer (South Burlington, Vt.) with nine minutes
left in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring.

Fulford followed Sabourin in the rushing column, running for 153 yards
and two scores on 18 attempts. Pitts and Triplett rounded out the potent
Cadet ground attack with 68 and 66 yards respectively as Norwich rolled
up 527 yards on 60 attempts.

Brozowski finished 37-for-59 with 329 yards and a touchdown through the
air, while Carpenter ended up with 55 yards on nine attempts and two
scores on the ground.

Farmer posted a career-high 11 catches for 86 yards and a touchdown,
while Patterson added a game-high 99 yards receiving on five catches.

Colby Leclerc (Raynham, Mass.) led the Cadet defense with 10 tackles,
including two-and-a-half for loss. Sean Stone (Wilder, Vt.) followed
with nine tackles (two for loss) while Matt Simonelli (Scituate, R.I.),
Dan Gogan (Keansbury, N.J.), Oliver Aurelia (Stratford, Conn.) each
added a sack.

Todd Carr (Ticonderoga, N.Y.) set a new Spartan record with 15 tackles
to lead Castleton, while Brandon Bergeron (Hartford, Vt.) added eight.

Castleton, now 1-4, 1-2 will travel to Becker next Saturday for a 4 pm
ECFC contest, while Norwich will puts its 3-3, 3-0 mark on the line with
Gallaudet, which up its ECFC mark to 2-0 today, next Saturday at 1 pm.

____________________