Last season, the Leland & Gray Rebels girls' soccer team reached the Division III state finals for the first time in 30 years. The school has dropped down to Division IV for this season, but after winning their first four games, the Rebels look like they are capable of another title run.
Only three players graduated from last year's 15-3 team. The offense is led by senior midfielder Abby Towle, who scored 30 goals and dished out 16 assists last season. Sophomore midfielder Abigail Emerson had 14 goals and three assists last season. Both figured in the scoring as the Rebels defeated the Springfield Cosmos, 3-1, on Sept. 10 in Townshend.
After an own goal by Springfield just 1:01 into the game, Emerson scored from Towle in the fifth minute to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead. Towle then scored an unassisted goal in the 11th minute to close out the early surge by the Rebels.
The final score could have been worse, as the Rebels put 21 shots on goal, but several of those shots either hit the crossbar or the goalpost.
“We're passing well and playing good soccer,” said Rebels coach Joe Towle. “We're doing everything except consistently put the ball in the net. We did what we needed to do to win today, but I think we haven't hit our stride yet.”
Senior goalkeeper Makailia Morse had an easy game and held the Cosmos scoreless in the 65 minutes she was in goal. Ninth-grader Annabelle Brookes finished in goal and gave up Springfield's only tally, from Macie Stagner, in the 75th minute.
• The Rebel girls started their season on Labor Day weekend with a pair of wins in the Green Mountain Challenge tournament at Dorsey Park in Ludlow. They opened with a 2-0 win on Sept. 2 over Green Mountain with goals from Emerson and Mary McDonald.
Leland & Gray then beat Proctor, 2-1, on Sept. 3 to win the tourney title. Maggie Parker and Avery Hiner were the goal scorers as the Rebels ended a 35-game winning streak by Proctor dating back to October 2019.
The Rebels then needed two overtimes to defeat White River Valley, 2-1, in Townshend on Sept. 6. Mary Sanderson got the game-winner, assisted by Abby Towle. Earlier in the game, Emerson scored off a Towle corner kick.
So far, the Rebel girls have shown they can win close games and that they can get scoring from a variety of players. The experience from last season is definitely carrying over into this one, and makes the Rebels a team to watch out for in Division IV.
Football
• The 54-40 loss to Bellows Falls in Week 1 revealed much that Brattleboro needed to work on - improving their run defense, cutting down on penalties and sloppy play, and diversifying their offense.
After a 13-12 win over the Colchester Lakers on Sept. 9 at Natowich Field, the Colonels remain a work in progress. It took a last-second play to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat that clamped down tightly on the Colonels.
Colchester struck first on its opening drive when Brady LeVasseur caught a 15-yard pass from quarterback Jordan Lavoie, but the Colonels blocked the extra point try to make it 6-0 Lakers with 7:12 to play in the first quarter.
That was the only score in the first half as both teams wasted good opportunities to score. The Colonels had their first drive stopped on a fumble, and penalties derailed their second drive. On their third drive, an apparent touchdown catch by Tristan Evans was wiped out by a penalty. Brattleboro regrouped and got the ball down to the Lakers' 1 yard line, but got no further.
The inability of the Lakers to capitalize on the Colonels' mistakes came back to haunt them in the second half. Brattleboro had the ball to start the third quarter and successfully drove down the field. Tight end Jackson Emery caught a 14-yard strike from Speno in the corner of the end zone and Jordy Allembert kicked the extra point to give the Colonels a 7-6 lead with 6:49 left in the quarter.
Brattleboro had the chance to deliver the knockout blow when Evans intercepted the ball at the Colonels' 29 with 4:23 left in the third. Once again, penalties stymied the offense, and the Colonels had to punt. Colchester got the ball and ultimately took the lead with a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Lavoie, but a two-point conversion failed, so it was 12-7 Lakers with 11:06 left in the game.
After Lakers defensive back Mason Cardinal intercepted a Speno pass with 5:24 to play, Colchester had the opportunity to win if they could run the ball and wind down the clock. They couldn't, and Brattleboro ended up with the ball and one last chance to win with 2:15 to play.
Fittingly, after all of the Colonels' mistakes, it was the Lakers that made the fatal error at the end. A pair of catches by Evans and short receptions by Emery and Cam Frost got the ball down to the Laker 7-yard-line with 26.8 seconds left. On fourth-and-five, Colchester jumped offsides and the penalty gave Brattleboro a first down on the 2-yard line.
After a no-gain running the ball, a timeout, and an incomplete pass, Speno found Frost in the right corner of the end zone. Frost reeled in the pass, surrounded by defenders, for the winning touchdown with 4.6 seconds on the clock. The missed extra point didn't matter. The Colonels had just won their home opener.
“That was a hell of a win,” said Colonels head coach Chad Pacheco. “If we can clean up our mistakes, just think of what we can accomplish.”
They will definitely need to do that this Friday night, as the 1-1 Colonels travel to White River Junction to play the always tough Hartford Hurricanes.
• Fair Haven kept it close for three quarters, but Bellows Falls was ultimately too much for the Slaters to handle as the Terriers came away with a 35-19 win at Hadley Field on Sept. 9.
The Terriers offensive line of Jake Moore, Peter Kamel, Dillan Perry, Ray Plummer and Noah Simino withstood the Slaters' much bigger defensive line as BF accumulated 358 yards of rushing.
Caden Haskell led the way with 188 yards on 24 carries with one touchdown, while Walker James ran for 82 yards on 13 carries with two TDs and quarterback Jamison Nystrom gained 66 yards on six carries. Nystrom had a 4-for-7 night passing, and threw a pair of touchdown passes, one to James for 24 yards and the other to Eli Allbee for 17 yards.
The BF defense held Slaters quarterback Joe Buxton in check - he went 10-for-24 for 147 yards with one touchdown and one interception - and clamped down on the Slaters running game, holding them to just 36 yards and one rushing touchdown by Buxton.
The 2-0 Terriers travel to Bennington this Friday to face Mount Anthony for a rematch of last year's Division I title game.
Boys' soccer
• Brattleboro started its season with a 2-1 overtime win against Green Mountain in Chester on Sept. 3. Forward Ozzie Van Hendricks scored early in the second overtime period by to win it, set up by midfielder Charlie Kinnersley.
Evan Kirdzik scored GM's only goal in the second half, but Brattleboro midfielder Jordy Allembert later scored off a pass from Emmett Hoyer to force overtime. GM goalkeeper Forrest Garvin had 13 saves and kept the Chieftains in the game against constant pressure by the Colonels' forward line of Hoyer, Van Hendricks, Tate Chamberlin, Joey Reynolds, and Sean von Ranson.
In the home opener against Leland & Gray on Sept. 7 at Natowich Field, a similar scenario played out as the Colonels applied near constant pressure on the Rebels' goal, but with better results as Brattleboro dominated in a 4-0 victory.
“We worked on maintaining possession of the ball, and keeping our heads up when we didn't score,” said Colonels coach Ben Brewer after the win over the Rebels. “We scrimmaged against them a couple of weeks ago, so we knew what to expect.”
So did the Rebels. “We knew they were going to come after us hard, but this was not a game to hang our heads over,” said L&G coach Bartlett Holmes. “We did not give up.”
The busiest guy on the field was Rebels goalkeeper Theo Kelloway, who did his best to keep the game from turning into a rout with numerous stellar saves. Kinnersley scored a pair of goals for the 2-0 Colonels, Van Hendricks added another, and Tate Chamberlain successfully converted a penalty kick early in the second half.
• The Rebels took on Bellows Falls in their home opener on Sept. 9 in Townshend and cruised to a 4-0 win. Finch Holmes scored twice, and Trevor Hazelton and Jackson Fillion also scored. Ethan Mayotte and Trevor Stillwagon each had an assist.
• Twin Valley shut out White River Valley, 6-0, on Sept. 10. Noah Dornburgh, Caleb Dupuis, Brayden Brown, Cody Magnant, Steven Oyer, and Matt Hammond all scored for the Wildcats, and goalkeeper Liam Wendel made three saves.
Girls' soccer
• Bellows Falls opened their season with a pair of road games, a 9-0 loss to Rivendell on Sept. 8, and a 9-0 loss to Arlington on Sept. 10. The loss to Arlington was particularly painful, as injuries forced the Terriers to call the game at halftime.
• Twin Valley opened their season at home on Sept, 8, and lost 9-0 to West Rutland.
Field hockey
• Bellows Falls rolled to a pair of shutout wins last week. Sadie Scott and Emma Bazin scored two goals each as the Terriers beat Windsor, 4-0, on Sept. 7.
The Terriers followed that up with a 6-0 win over Rutland in Westminster on Sept. 10. Bazin scored three goals, Ashlin Maxfield scored twice, and Scott added another tally. Ava LaRoss had a pair of assists, while Ella Clark and Bazin each had one assist.
Cross-country
• The Brattleboro girls opened their season on Sept. 6 by finishing first in a meet on the Bellows Falls Union High School trails in Westminster.
Brattleboro senior Ava Whitney won the girls' race in 20 minutes, 32 seconds. Together with strong performances by Tilly Farwell (third), Miriam Patton (foutth), Katherine Normandeau (seventh), and Genevieve Redmond (14th), the Colonels finished ahead of Thetford in the team scoring.
The Brattleboro boys finished third, behind Thetford and Hartford, in their meet. Thetford's Ben Matter was the individual winner in 17:54, Michael Slade was the top BUHS runner, finishing fifth in 20:07, followed by Miles Ackerman-Hovis (ninth), Brinly Woodcock (12th), Jonas Ackerman-Hovis (21st), and Galen Fogarty (22nd).
Brattleboro will have two big meets this week - the Thetford Invitational on Sept. 14 and the Pickering Invitational in Bellows Falls on Sept. 16.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 2 of the fall/winter season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League on Sept. 8 saw Team 4 (The Keglers) remain in first place at 9-1, while Team 7 (Lucky 7) is in second at 8-2. Team 6 (Trash-O-Matic) is third at 7-3, followed by Team 1 (Good Times) at 5-5, Team 3 (Split Happens) at 4-6, Team 8 (Old Farts) at 3-7, and Team 2 (Slow Movers) and Team 5 (The Strikers), both 2-8.
Debbie Kolpa had the women's high handicap game (259), while Diane Cooke had the high handicap series (672). Robert Rigby had the men's high handicap game (264) and series (704), and Lucky 7 had the high team handicap game (883) and series (2,474).
In scratch scoring, Rigby led the men with a 674 series that featured games of 254 and 245.. Skip Shine had a 587 series that featured games of 202, 193, and 192, while Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 529 series that featured a 200 game. Wayne Randall had a 511 series with games of 198 and 180, while Jerry Dunham also had a 511 series with games of 187 and 182.
Josie Rigby (481) had the women's high scratch series, which featured a 183 game. Kolpa had the high scratch game (192).