The Colonels are state football champions.
That is a sentence that has not been uttered in this town since 1973. But now, there is no more “wait until next year.” The Colonels are the Division II champs, and they did it like they've done it all year - with overwhelming force.
Their 46-7 victory over the Bellows Falls Terriers in the title game on Nov. 9 at Rutland's Alumni Field was the exclamation point on a dream season.
Considering that the Colonels' rise began in the season opener against BF, when they rallied from a 19-0 deficit to beat the Terriers, 49-26, it was fitting that these two teams faced each other with a championship on the line.
And, like their first meeting, it was BF that asserted themselves early. Using their trademark power running game, the Terriers - led by running back Jed Lober - drove the ball deep into the Colonels' territory but could not score.
Brattleboro's defense held firm, and the Colonels got the ball on their own 2. On the first play from scrimmage, running back Chris Frost touched the ball for the first time; he burst up the middle and jetted up the field for a 98-yard touchdown. Reed Sargent's extra point made it 7–0 with 6:42 left in the first quarter.
“It's insane,” Frost said after the game. “It's nice to just go into the open field and take off. Gets a little tiring after a little while, but the payoff is nice. And I gotta thank the linemen. Without them, it wouldn't be possible.”
Colonels head coach Chad Pacheco said that the play that led to the 98-yard touchdown “was just put in this week. We like to run outside a lot. We decided we wanted to give a different look to it and bring it inside. I said, 'Let's go with it' on the first play, and next thing you know, it's a 98-yard TD. I did not think it was going to be that.”
On BF's second series, a strip sack of quarterback Griffin Waryas by Colonels lineman Joe Koes led to a fumble recovery by Koes at midfield. Frost then got his second TD on a 6-yard run. Sargent's kick pushed the lead to 14-0 with 3:15 left in the first.
“We knew we could run and pass on their defense,” said Frost. “We just put the foot on the gas and didn't stop.”
“The game plan was that we knew BF was going to very physical with us on defense and we knew they were going to run the ball 30 times with Lober. Offensively, we knew we had to change some things up because a lot of teams were seeing our schemes. We had to come more inside and give a different look off of it. Defensively, we knew that we had to shut down Lober.”
The Terriers got their lone score on the ensuing series as Lober scored on a 3-yard run to cut the Colonels lead to 14-7 with 11:13 left in the second quarter.
That would be the last time that a BF player would see the end zone, as the Colonels reeled off 32 unanswered points to clinch the title.
The scoring blitz began with a 28-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tyler Millerick. A missed extra point made it 20-7 with 9:07 left.
Lineman Timmy Velazquez sacked Wayras to force another punt and, on the Colonels' next series, Frost ran for a 74-yard touchdown, again showing his speed and power against an over-matched BF defense. Another missed extra point gave the Colonels a 26-7 lead with 4:45 left in the half.
Brattleboro made it 33-7 as the first half ended with tight end Henry Thurber catching a 4-yard touchdown pass from Millerick.
The Colonels scored their final two touchdowns in the third quarter. Frost got his fourth score of the day on a 9-yard-run with 9:10 left, while wide receiver Trinley Warren caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Millerick at the end of the quarter. The point-after kick failed for a 46-7 lead.
The final quarter was played under a running clock due to the mercy rule to hasten the countdown to ecstasy that Colonels football fans have waited nearly 50 years to experience.
Frost finished with 278 yards of rushing on 18 carries, while Millerick ran and threw the ball for 200 yards. Thurber had five catches for 98 yards. That production was aided by outstanding play on the offensive line by Elijah Isham, Sammy Fontaine, Tyler McNary, Reed McKay, and Jem Cohen.
“We worked all summer, and it paid off,” said Millerick. “The new line coach [former BF line coach Mike Empey] really helped us. The last couple years, it hasn't been so good a line. We could block some people for once.”
Lober finished with 58 yards of rushing on 14 carries and Waryas was 8-for-14 passing the ball for 62 yards, as BF was held to 157 yards of total offense. By comparison, Brattleboro had 526 yards of total offense.
Millerick, who accounted for 50 touchdowns with his arm and his legs, and Frost, who ran for 1,772 yards, both had a season for the ages.
Not since coach Andy Natowich's legendary “point-a-minute” team won the 1965 state championship has Brattleboro had a team that has scored more than 40 points a game.
Not until this team came along and ended a 46-year drought.
“This [wait] has been nuts,” Millerick said. “We were talking about it. The players who called themselves Colonels the last 46 years - this game is for them, too. We tried to do it for the town, and we got it done.”
For Pacheco, who was the ball boy for the 1998 team, he said that it was hard to put into words what he was feeling.
“I don't think it's hit me yet,” he said. “From being a ball boy and being in this program to this is just crazy. This is more for our community than it is for our kids.”
“It's been a long journey, especially for us seniors,” said Frost. “We were getting our face kicked in for the past couple of years. I'm still not used to it. It's still insane to be 11-0 and be state champions.”