By Jack Healey
Nobody cares about the Shrine game?
Tell that to the players, the Shriners and the patients at the Shriner’s hospitals and the just over the estimated 5000 fans on hand at sun drenched Dave Wolk Stadium at Castleton University this past Saturday! The Shrine game is special and it always will be! By the way the New Hampshire East-West CHAD high school all star game played in June at the University of New Hampshire only drew slightly over 2000 fans this year.
New Hampshire defeated Vermont 21-9 to snap a three game losing streak in the game and now leads in the series 48-16 with 2 ties. The Rutland High guys were responsible for Vermont scoring on a 23 yard field goal by the Raiders’ Noah Crossman and a 40 yard touchdown pass from the Raiders’ Ryan Moore to Burr and Burton’s Jake Baker.
I did predict a 24-21 Vermont victory. I certainly thought this was the best New Hampshire team in the past couple of years and maybe deep down I thought New Hampshire would win, but I stuck with the Green Mountain boys.
It was great talking with former Fair Haven quarterback Kevin Pereau during the halftime show on NSN. Kevin was the quarterback in Vermont’s 12-7 victory in the 1975 game. It was also great talking to former Castleton President Dave Wolk during the halftime show as well. Of course the stadium bears his name. It was the first time I ever had the chance to interview a stadium.
Yes the Shrine game is special and don’t ever forget it!