Keeping things simple turned out to be a good strategy for the Brattleboro Colonels football team.
With a better mix of running and passing plays on offense and their best defensive effort of the season, the Colonels put it all together for a 10-6 win over the Fair Haven Slaters before a big homecoming weekend crowd at Natowich Field on Sept. 23.
Colonels head coach Chad Pacheco said he simplified the offense and went back to the playbooks of his immediate coaching predecessors, Bill Miller and Charlie McLoughlin. “We needed to get back to basics,” said Pacheco. “We made adjustments during the week and the result was that we got the ball into the hands of a lot of different people tonight.”
Cam Frost, who has been used as receiver for most of the season, went back to his old job as running back. Frost and fellow running back Noah Perusse led the Colonels' ground game, as the offensive line did a great job of blocking.
With teams keying on speedy wide receiver Tristan Evans, Colonels quarterback Devin Speno found a way to get the ball to wide receiver Charlie Clark and tight end Jackson Emery, and picked up a fair amount of yardage in the process.
However, Evans still figured in the scoring, with a 30-yard catch in the near corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 2:20 left in the first quarter. That would be the Colonels' only touchdown in the game, and it would be up to the defense to win it.
David Doran, a big lineman who the Slaters use as a running back when they get near the goal line, scored on a 1-yard run with 8:51 left in the second quarter, but Fair Haven failed to score on a two-point conversion play, and the Colonels went into halftime clinging to a 7-6 lead.
The teams slogged through a scoreless third quarter and the only other scoring came courtesy of the foot of Jordy Allembert, the senior soccer standout doing double-duty as the Colonels' placekicker. His 30-yard boot with 11:44 to play was his first varsity field goal and gave Brattleboro a 10-6 lead.
Brattleboro got a scare when Allembert missed on a 36-yard field goal attempt to give Fair Haven the ball on their 19-yard line with 1:54 to play. The Slaters quickly drove down the field and got down to the Colonels 10-yard line with 30 seconds to play. Fair Haven got no further as the defense held, highlighted by a sack by lineman Justin Packard Jr., and Brattleboro escaped with an another last-second victory.
“I'm proud of the whole team tonight,” said Pacheco. “The defense stepped up and played a huge game.”
Now 2-2, the Colonels are back in the playoff race. They head up to Lyndon this Saturday afternoon to face the Vikings.
BF gridders sink U-32
• Caden Haskell ran for three touchdowns as the Bellows Falls Terriers remained undefeated with a 43-7 win over the U-32 Raiders in East Montpelier on Sept. 24.
Remington LaCroix opened the scoring with a four-yard runmidway through the first quarter. BF then added a safety and a 15-yard touchdown run by Walker James to make it 16-0 with 4:15 left in the second quarter.
Haskell started the second half with a 1-yard touchdown run with 7:19 left in the third quarter and ran for two more scores to give BF a 37-0 lead. U-32 got its only score late in the game on a 70-yard TD pass from quarterback Charlie Fitzpatrick to Hunter Bove.
The 4-0 Terriers will have a tough test this Friday night when they travel to Newport to face undefeated North Country.
Girls' soccer
• Leland & Gray remains undefeated. On Sept. 20, the Rebels beat Green Mountain, 2-1, in double overtime. GM's Riley Paul scored in the 61st minute, but the Rebels tied the game in the 74th minute on a direct kick by Abby Towle. It was her 50th career goal.
Mary Sanderson got the game-winning goal with 1:22 left in the second overtime, set up by Sam Morse. It was the second time this season that Sanderson scored the deciding goal in overtime.
On Sept. 22, the Rebels rolled to a 7-0 win over Mill River. Annabelle Brookes and Lily Litchfield each scored their first varsity goal, and Towle, Mary McDonald, Sanderson, Abigail Emerson, and Maggie Parker also scored. Parker assisted on two goals, and Sanderson and Savannah Cadrin each had an assist as the Rebels finished the week at 8-0.
• Brattleboro had a couple of close losses last week. On Sept. 22, they were edged by Woodstock, 2-1. Greta Neddenriep scored the Colonels only goal, assisted by Augustina McGillion. Goalkeeper Mariah Fellows finished with eight saves.
On Sept. 24, Springfield edged the Colonels, 1-0. Ella Donahue scored the game's lone goal for the visiting Cosmos, assisted by Emma Snyder, in the 28th minute. Goalkeeper Kylie Nadeau, who made her first varsity start after recently coming back from an injury, made nine saves to earn the shutout. It was first time in 15 years that Springfield had beaten Brattleboro in girls' soccer.
• Twin Valley is still looking for its first win, and its first goal, of the season. The 0-5 Wildcats had two losses on the road last week, a 7-0 defeat against Long Trail on Sept. 20 and a 10-0 defeat against Arlington on Sept. 23.
• Bellows Falls is also winless, with a 8-0 loss to White River Valley on Sept. 21 and 3-1 loss at home to Mill River on Sept. 24. The Terriers ended the week at 0-5.
Boys' soccer
• Brattleboro is in a bit of a slump. After coming up short in the John James Tournament, Brattleboro lost a pair of games last week against Hartford and Mount Anthony.
Ozzie VanHendrick scored Brattleboro's only goal of the game, set up by a Jordy Allembert free kick, in a 3-1 loss to Hartford on Sept. 21 at Natowich Field.
Against Mount Anthony on Sept. 24, the Colonels wanted revenge against the team that beat them in the James Tourney, but it was the Patriots who came away with a 3-1 win at Natowich Field.
MAU took a 1-0 halftime lead thanks to a successful penalty kick by Silas Rella-Neill. In the second half, Luke Eggsware scored to make it 2-0 before VanHendrick cut the lead in half with a penalty kick in the 70th minute. MAU then put the game away with a Pete McKenna goal in the 78th minute. The 3-3 Colonels get a few days off before facing Burr & Burton this Friday.
• For the ninth time in the 14 years that the John Werner Tournament has been played in Arlington, Twin Valley came away with the championship.
Twin Valley beat Stratton Mountain School, 3-1, in the opening game on Sept. 21, with Cody Magnant scoring a pair of first-half goals and goalkeeper Liam Wendell making 12 saves.
In the tourney championship on Sept. 22 against the Arlington Eagles, the game ended in a scoreless tie after two overtimes, and it came down to a penalty kick shootout to decide a winner.
Steven Oyer, Noah Dornburgh and Carson McHale all converted their kicks for the Wildcats, while Arlington's Chris Whalen was the only Eagle to score in the shootout. Wendell made nine saves in goal and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
• Leland & Gray lost to Grace Christian School, 4-3, in Townshend on Sept. 21, but got a solid road win on Sept. 23 with a 4-2 victory over Bellows Falls.
Cross-country
• The Brattleboro girls keep rolling as the Colonels placed four runners in the top 15 to win a multi-team meet in Hartford on Sept. 20. Ava Whitney was the top overall girls' finisher in 21 minutes, 25 seconds, and teammates Tilly Farwell (fourth), Katherine Normandeau (sixth), and Genevieve Redmond (12th) all turned in strong performances to to put the Colonels on top.
The Brattleboro boys were second in their meet, with Michael Slade finishing first in 20:32, followed by teammates Brinly Woodcock (eighth), Miles Ackerman-Hovis (ninth), Galen Fogarty (15th), and Jonas Ackerman-Hovis (21st).
Field hockey
• Brattleboro is still winless on the season, but put up a good fight in a 2-0 loss to Fair Haven on Sept. 24 at Sawyer Field. Vivian Ladabouche and Alana Williams were the goalscorers for the Slaters.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 4 of the fall/winter season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League on Sept. 14 saw Keglers 4 go 5-0 to take sole possession of first place at 16-4. Lucky 7 (13-7) went 4-1 to move into second place, while Trash-O-Matic and Split Happens (both 12-8) are tied for third, followed by Good Times (11-6), The Strikers (9-11), Slow Movers (4-15), and and Old Farts (3-17).
Nancy Dalzell had the women's high handicap game (249), while Pat Bentrup had the high handicap series (648). Chuck Adams had the men's high handicap game (268) and series (687), while Keglers 4 had the high team handicap game (879) and series (2,455).
In scratch scoring, Adams led the men with a 687 series with games of 268, 214, and 205. Jerry Dunham had a 595 series. with games of 221, 192, and 182, while Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 517 series that featured a 223 game and Robert Rigby had a 512 series and Gary Montgomery rolled a 180 game.
Dalzell had the women's high scratch game (198) and series (492). Josie Rigby rolled games of 177 and 161, Carol Gloski had a 168 game, and Bentrup had games of 165 and 161.
Men's Basketball League to meet
• The organizational meeting for the 2022-23 season of the Brattleboro Men's Basketball League is Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 6 p.m., at the Gibson-Aiken Center.
A representative from each team that plans to participate must attend the meeting. The league is also looking for new board members. To learn more, call 802-254-5808.