BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Colonels boys soccer team won the John James Tournament in Bennington on Saturday night with a 3-0 win over Mount Anthony. Travis Elliot-Knaggs, who was named the tournament's most valuable player, scored a pair of breakaway goals in the first half to lead the Colonels. Greg Reuter then scored an insurance goal early in the second half as Brattleboro improved to 4-0 on the season.
The Colonels advanced to the finals with a 4-1 win over the Burr & Burton Bulldogs on Friday. This was a battle against a team that has had a lot of success in this annual tourney, as Burr & Burton has won it seven of eight times between 2001 and 2008. But Brattleboro showed why it would win this tourney for the second straight year with goals from Matt Dunn, Jackson Batchelder, Eli Pell and Elliot-Knaggs. The Colonels defense was solid too, as it did not allow a shot on goal until the 58th minute of the game.
Last Tuesday, Brattleboro shut out Springfield, 4-0, last Tuesday. Dunn, Jose-Diego Silva, Batchelder and Alex Phomnath were the Colonels' goal scorers. Goalkeepers Evan Darling and Galen Finnerty combined for seven saves.
The Colonels are off until Sept. 27, when they host Rutland at 6:30 p.m. at Tenney Field.
Boys soccer
• Noah Chapin scored three goals as Leland & Gray won the Josh Cole Tournament in Ludlow on Saturday night with a 4-1 win over Bellows Falls in the tourney final. Colin Nystrom also scored for the Rebels.
Bellows Falls made to the Cole final with a 4-1 win over Green Mountain on Friday night. Alfredo Jaikel and Matt Marchica each scored and Ryan Mammone had two goals - one of them coming on a penalty kick. The Rebels shut out host team Black River, 2-0, Friday night to set up the championship match.
• Twin Valley lost to Leland & Gray, 5-0, last Tuesday in Wilmington. Jake Hudson and Noah Chapin each scored two goals for the Rebels; Kevin Ameden also scored. On Friday, Twin Valley lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to Stratton Mountain School. SMS' Peter Cervullo scored what proved to be the game winner in the second minute, and the 1-3 Wildcats could not convert on any of their many scoring chances the rest of the way.
Girls soccer
• Brattleboro started last week off with a 5-0 win over Bellows Falls under the lights at Tenney Field last Tuesday. Taylor Kerylow scored three goals to lead the Colonels, and Erin LeBlanc and Halle Lange also scored. The Colonels put 25 shots on Terriers goalkeeper Enny Mustapha, who made some great saves to keep the game from really getting out of hand.
Kerylow kept up the scoring on when the Colonels visited Hartford last Thursday. She scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over the Hurricanes. Lange got the equalizer before Kerylow's game-winning blast for the 4-1 Colonels.
• Bellows Falls couldn't recover from the Brattleboro shutout, but the Terriers did manage a goal in a 5-1 home loss to Springfield last Wednesday. Courtney Perry got the goal as the Terriers fell to 0-4.
• Leland & Gray played to a 3-3 tie at Black River last Tuesday in Ludlow. Nicole Sherman had two goals for the Rebels and Chelby Nystrom added another.
The Rebels then walloped West Rutland, 9-0, on the road last Thursday, Keira Capponcelli had three goals, Sherman and Nystrom each scored twice and Michaela Tietz and Aly Marcucci both had one goal. Goalkeeper Cassidy Anderson made nine saves to earn the shutout and keep the Rebels undefeated at 2-0-1.
• Twin Valley fell to Stratton Mountain School, 1-0, on Saturday. The Wildcats are now 1-2 overall.
Football
• The losses keep piling up for the winless Brattleboro Colonels. On Saturday night, they fell to Keene, N.H., 48-13, at Natowich Field in the 80th renewal of a cross-border rivalry that dates back to 1894. According to The Keene Sentinel, Keene has a 43-35-2 advantage in the series.
The 3-0 Blackbirds started off hot as Keene quarterback Lucas Luopa threw for one touchdown and ran for another. Chris LaCroix ran in a score to make it 21-0 after one quarter. Brattleboro's Griffin Sparks turned a deflected pass from quarterback Nate Forrett into a 50-yard touchdown grab. Keene then exploded for three more touchdowns on receptions by Tyler Slanetz and Cody Bellows and a run by Parenteau.
It was 42-7 at the half, and the Colonels could only muster one more score, on a 1-yard run by Elliot Gragen, in the final minute of the game.
Now 0-3, the Colonels travel to Middlebury on Friday night.
• Bellows Falls improved to 2-1 with a 35-15 win over the Oxbow Olympians at Hadley Field on Saturday. The Terriers rolled up 291 yards of rushing as Ryan Hayward (129 yards) and Bruce Wells (79 yards) found plenty of room to run behind the offensive line of Peter Falzo, Danny Armstrong, Jake Stratton, Randy Rutkowski and Coty Mellish.
Jeremy Kilburn threw for two touchdowns, while Hayward ran for two more scores and Wells added another. The 2-1 Terriers travel to Manchester to face Burr & Burton on Friday night.
Field hockey
• The Brattleboro Colonels lost to the Mount Anthony Patriots, 4-0, last Monday at Tenney Field in a game that was much closer than the final score might indicate. The two teams were scoreless for the first 29 minutes before MAU's Amber Thomas scored on Colonel goalie Caroline McCarthy in the final minute of the first half. The Patriots then put the game away with three second-half goals.
The Colonels didn't fare much better against Woodstock in a 6-2 home loss last Thursday. Kelsey Kinsman scored both of Brattleboro's goals.
• The Bellows Falls Terriers remain winless after dropping a 1-0 road decision to the Fair Haven Slaters. Kaylie Flannigan scored the game's only goal on a rebound in the first half. The Terriers are now 0-3-1 and will be back in action against Otter Valley on Sept. 22.
Cross country
• The Colonels went up to Thetford last Tuesday for a six-team meet. The boys finished third, while the girls came in sixth. Jacob Ellis won the boys race with a time of 18 minutes, 38 seconds. Hannah Reichel was the top Brattleboro runner in the girls race, she was 22nd in 25:11.
CRVBL gets ready for next season
• The Putney Fossils of the Connecticut River Valley Baseball League defeated the Claremont Cardinals, 8-3 at Barnes Park in Claremont, N.H., in an exhibition game on Sept. 12.
Claremont has been playing in the New Hampshire over-40 Baseball League for the past several years. Richard Bissell got the win on the mound for Putney, while Dave Guadalupe pitched four scoreless innings of relief. Danny Lichtenfeld led the offense with three singles and an RBI, while Bissell (double), Keith Hazard (double), Sean O'Brien, Joe LeBlanc, and Brian Benjamin had two hits apiece.
There will be a CRVBL organizational meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at JD McLiments Pub in Putney. The league's board will be discussing plans for the 2011 season, including new teams and players, fundraising and other issues. Anyone interested in playing or sponsoring adult amateur baseball is welcome to attend.