The regular season ended for Vermont's soccer teams ended on Saturday, a season filled with surprises and disappointments.
Under the surprise category falls the Bellows Falls Terriers girls' soccer team. After finishing 1-12-1 last season, they are having a dream season in 2011.
With a 2-0 win over Long Trail School last Tuesday, the BF girls earned their eighth victory of the season. No other girls' soccer team in school history had ever reached those heights.
Chelsea Wilder scored an unassisted goal in the 30th minute, and Brit Moyna scored the insurance goal off a Sara Dumont corner kick in the 47th minute. Goalkeeper Enny Mustapha had an uneventful outing to earn a shutout.
The Terriers hoped to make it nine wins, and earn a Marble Valley League D Division championship in the process, with a win over Windsor on Senior Day on Thursday. Unfortunately, the Terriers lost 2-1.
Wilder scored off a Dumont feed midway through the first half for a 1-0 lead. But Windsor struck back in the second half with a pair of goals from Maryam Orogi to spoil a big day for the Terriers.
While the Terriers missed out on the MVL title, they eventually got their ninth win with a 4-3 victory on Saturday over Twin Valley, but BF needed double overtime to do it. Dumont got the game winner, while Lydia Pedigo, Corina Stack and Adeline Dailey all scored in regulation time. BF had a 3-0 lead before a pair of goals by Jordan Niles and a Shannon Lozito goal tied things up.
BF finished the regular season at 9-3-1, while Twin Valley ended a difficult season with a 2-11-1 record. The Terriers earned the No. 6 seed in Division III and are scheduled to host No. 11 Williamstown on Oct. 26 at 3 p.m.
Girls' soccer
• Brattleboro got shut out by Hartford, 3-0, on Thursday. In the Senior Day match on Friday at Tenney Field, the Colonels lost 3-1. Halie Lange scored the only goal as the Colonels finished the regular season at 4-7-3.
The Colonels got the No. 12 seed in Division I, and are scheduled to go on the road to face BFA-St. Albans in a playdown game on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
• Twin Valley picked up its second win of the season with a 4-3 overtime win against Green Mountain in Brattleboro last Monday. Savannah Nesbitt scored 3 straight goals, including the game-winner in the 86th minute. Jordan Niles also scored as the Wildcats took a 3-0 halftime lead, only to see the Chieftains storm back to tie the game in the second half.
On Thursday, the Wildcats were beaten, 3-0, by Black River in Ludlow.
• Proctor, the top ranked team in Division IV, turned away Leland & Gray, 2-1, last Monday. Nicole Sherman broke up the shut out with a goal from Gianina Gaspero-Beckstrom in the final two minutes.
On Thursday, the Rebels prevailed in a wild 4-3 win over Green Mountain. As was the case in their game earlier in the week against Twin Valley, Green Mountain trailed 3-1, and stormed back to tie the game late. Leland & Gray's Samantha Russ helped the Rebels avoid overtime by scoring the game-winner with 10 minutes left in regulation.
Nicole Sherman and Ashley Goddard each had a goal and an assist for the Rebels, who finished the regular season at 3-11. Callie Ginter also scored. The Rebels are the No. 15 seed in Division III and are scheduled to travel to Bradford to faced second-seeded Oxbow on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
Boys' soccer
• Leland & Gray finished the regular season strong, as the defending Division III champs won four games in five days to clinch another Marble Valley League C Division title.
The Rebels blasted Mount St. Joseph, 7-0, last Monday in Townshend. Nick Lawley scored 3 goals to lead the Rebels, and Bobby Culver, James Crowther, Zach Wilkins and Aiden Coleman each added a goal. Goalkeeper Tanner Karg needed to make only 1 save to earn the shutout, his fourth in a row.
The Rebels followed that romp with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Twin Valley last Tuesday. Crowther scored the game-winner on a second-half penalty kick. Hunter Buffum scored the Rebels' other goal in the first half. Colin Lozito scored on a penalty kick for the Wildcats.
On Thursday, the Rebels beat Green Mountain, 3-1. Buffum scored 2 goals and assisted on another. Christopher Lasch also scored. Leland & Gray finished the week with a 4-1 win over Windsor. Culver, Buffum, Lasch, and Chayse Jarvis were the goal scorers.
The Rebels got the No. 3 seed in Division III, but were upset by No. 14 Winooski, 1-0, in a playdown game on Tuesday in Townshend.
• Bellows Falls played Black River to a scoreless tie in Ludlow last Monday. BF outshot their opponent, 22-16, but came up empty. On Tuesday, the Terriers again were held scoreless in a 6-0 loss to Proctor.
The 3-9-2 Terriers were the No. 14 seed in Division II, and lost to the No. 3 Montpelier Solons, 3-0, in a playdown game on Tuesday.
• Brattleboro had to cram three games into the last four days of the regular season. On Wednesday, Rutland edged the Colonels, 1-0, as Raiders goalie David Cohen made 6 saves to earn the shutout.
The Colonels traveled to Burr & Burton on Friday, and played the top team in Division II to a scoreless tie. Brattleboro goalkeeper Galen Finnerty had 8 saves. The Colonels wrapped up the regular season on Saturday in Springfield and earned a 1-0 win in double overtime. Colin Owen scored the winning goal off a Jesse Brown direct kick.
Brattleboro (5-8-1) earned the 14th seed in Division I, and were beaten by third-seeded Champlain Valley, 4-0, in a playdown game in Hinesburg on Tuesday.
• Twin Valley ended the regular season on Saturday with a 1-0 loss to Proctor in the Senior Day game that was played in Arlington. The 6-7-1 Wildcats earned the No. 6 seed in Division IV and are scheduled to host No. 11 Twinfield on Wednesday in Brattleboro.
Field hockey
• Saturday was the last day of the regular season for Bellows Falls and Brattleboro.
Fair Haven beat Bellows Falls, 1-0, last Tuesday in a game that had plenty of scoring chances for the Terriers that just barely missed the mark. The Terriers then had a flukey game against Windsor on Thursday. After Cassidy Santorelli scored for BF to tie the game at 1-1 midway through the first half, Windsor scored seven unanswered goals on the way to an 8-1 rout.
In its regular season finale Saturday, BF beat Vermont Academy, 4-0. Mariah Barrett scored 3 goals, Sarah Wells added another goal. The 4-7-3 Terriers earned a No. 5 seed in Division III, will travel to No. 4 Fair Haven for a rematch of last week's game on Friday at 3:45 p.m.
• Otter Valley defeated Brattleboro, 1-0, in the Colonels' Senior Night game last Monday, and lost to Mount Anthony, 4-0, on Saturday. With a 1-13 record, the Colonels fell short of the 40 percent win percentage that school policy requires to qualify for a playoff spot.
Football
• Bellows Falls picked up its fourth shutout of the season with a 21-0 win over Otter Valley at Hadley Field on Saturday. Bruce Wells and Cooper Long both had touchdown runs, and Will Bourne hauled in a touchdown pass from Jeremy Kilburn. The Terrier defense also picked up a safety to complete the scoring.
Now 4-4, the Terriers wrap up the season at Springfield on Saturday night at 7 in the annual game for “The Trophy.” BF is still ranked sixth in Division II, but even if the Terriers beat Springfield and No. 4 Burr & Burton and No. 5 Rice both lose this weekend, it does not look likely that the Terriers can secure the fourth and final playoff spot.
• Speaking of trophies, the Brattleboro Colonels reclaimed the Elwell Trophy with a 14-12 win over Mount Anthony on Saturday night in Bennington.
With the game tied 6-all with 1:20 left in the final quarter, Aaron Prue intercepted a pass from MAU quarterback Juan Restrepo and ran it back nearly 50 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Tyler Higley connected with Soren Pelz-Walsh for the two-point conversion that proved to be the winning margin.
Alex Cross started the scoring for MAU with a 17-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. But Cross fumbled in his own end in the fourth quarter, and Colonel running back Jake Gaboriault turned that turnover into a touchdown to tie the game.
After the Prue touchdown, Restrepo threw to Isaac Bendavid for a 63-yard score. MAU tried for the two-point conversion with a run by Cross, but he was stopped short of the goal line by the Colonel defense to preserve the win.
The Colonels finished the regular season at 4-4, but missed out on a playoff spot. Both Brattleboro and St. Johnsbury finished with identical records, but because the Colonels lost to St. Johnsbury earlier in the season, the Hilltoppers got the eighth and final spot in the Division I tournament. So, the Colonels will host Essex on Friday night at 7 p.m. for a consolation game at Natowich Field.
Cross country
• In team scoring at a cross country meet, a perfect score is 15 points. To achieve it, a team has to have five of its runners finish in the top 5. The Mount Anthony boys did better that, sweeping the top 8 positions to win the Marble Valley League Division I Championship in Brattleboro on Tuesday.
Rutland came in second with 53, host team Brattleboro was third with 84 and Burr & Burton was last with 105.
Allen Unaitis was Brattleboro's top finisher, coming in at 11th in 20:22. Josh Parro, Anthony Burdo, Spencer Olson and Sam Colleran rounded out the team's top 5.
Brattleboro's Jacob Ellis, who had been the Colonels' top runner for the first month of the season, hurt his knee at the Thetford Invitational earlier this month and is slowly recovering from the injury. At full speed, he probably would have broken up Mount Anthony's perfect score. Instead, he settled for 30th in 22:36, well behind first-place finisher Marc Brandemeyer, who covered the East Orchard Street course in 18:07.
In the MVL girls' meet, Mount Anthony also came out on top with 30 points. Brattleboro was second with 64, followed by Burr & Burton (67) and Rutland (69).
Hannah Reichel (sixth in 24:15) led the Colonel girls, followed by Leah Silverman (ninth in 24:35), Helen Manning (10th in 24:36), Kasey Kidder (17th in 26:48), and Saskia Bailey-de Bruijn (25th in 28:13).
The Colonels had one last tune-up for the state meet with the Mount Anthony Invitational in Bennington on Saturday. Ellis improved on his MVL time with a 19:15 performance that was good enough for sixth. Rounding out Brattleboro's top five were Unaitis (15th in 20:39), Colleran (18th in 21:05), Parro (22nd in 22:03), and Olson (23rd in 22:04).
The Brattleboro boys finished third in the four-team meet, while the girls did not have enough runners for a team score. Reichel was the top runner with an eighth place finish in 24:31.
• In the MVL Division II Championships in Springfield last Tuesday, the Bellows Falls boys finished third, behind first place Woodstock and second place Thetford.
BF's Jamie Moore won the race in a course record time of 16:35. Collin Johnson came in ninth in 18:12. Willie Moore (10th), Tim Jones (12th), and William Scarlett (65th) rounded out the Terriers' top 5.
• The state championship meet will be run at Thetford Academy this Saturday.
Women's basketball rosters due Nov. 4
• The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department reminds teams in the winter women's basketball league that rosters are due on Nov. 4 by 4 p.m. at the Recreation & Parks office at the Gibson-Aiken Center, 207 Main St.
Women's basketball pick-up scrimmages will be held on Mondays from 6-8 p.m. through Nov. 21. If more information is needed, call 802-254-5808.
Ski, Skate & Snowboard sale is Nov. 5
• The annual Ski., Skate & Snowboard sale, sponsored by the Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department and the Brattleboro Outing Club, will be held Saturday, Nov. 5, from 8-11 a.m., at the Gibson Aiken Center.
Snowboards, skis, ski boots, poles, and bindings (both downhill and cross country) will be in the second floor gymnastics room, while skates, winter sports clothing, and hockey equipment will be for sale in the Senior Center. People who wish to enter items in the sale must bring them to the Gibson-Aiken Center on Friday, Nov. 4 between noon and 7 p.m. only. Any winter sport article can be listed for sale, but only 10 items per family will be accepted for each floor.
Equipment brought in for the sale will be checked for DIN numbers. This means that sports shops might not service those items without a DIN number. Equipment that does not have a DIN number will be marked with a red dot on the price tag. Unsold articles must be picked up on Monday, Nov. 7, between noon and 6 p.m. Call 802-254-5808 for more information.