It was a lost weekend for the Brattleboro Colonels as they journeyed to Essex over the weekend to play in the North-South Classic.
On Friday, BFA-St. Albans knocked off Brattleboro, 33-17, while Hartford beat Essex, 39-34, in Friday's late game. Mary Richardson was Brattleboro's high scorer with 5 points, while Erin LeBlanc and Kelsey Patterson each added 4 points.
The Colonels got a little more offense on Saturday, but lost a close one to Essex, 46-41. Lindsey Johnson and LeBlanc both scored 12 points, while Mariah Lesure chipped in 6.
Conant's Brooke Springfield scored 35 points, including a 20-for 23 night at the free throw line, to the Orioles to a 56-50 win over the Colonels at the BUHS gym on Jan. 5. Springfield's spectacular effort negated a strong second-half comeback by the Colonels. LeBlanc, Richardson and Lesure scored 12, 11, and 10 points, respectively, for Brattleboro.
After heading into the new year at 2-2, the Colonels are now 2-5. Brattleboro travels to Rutland on Friday.
Girls' basketball
• Twin Valley took care of Mount St. Joseph, 44-28, on Jan. 4. Sam Bernard had 15 points, 12 rebounds and 6 steals to lead the 4-3 Wildcats. Savannah Nesbitt had 10 points, 3 assists, and 4 steals, Bryer-lyn Crawford has 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 5 steals, and Abbi Molner and Kylie-blu Crawford combined for 11 points.
• Leland & Gray got by Poultney, 54-49, on Jan 4. Aly Marcucci scored 24 points, including four three-pointers, and had 5 assists to lead the 4-1 Rebels. Ashley Goddard chipped in 14 points and 8 rebounds, Bethany Robinson scored 9 points and Alex Morrow pulled down 10 rebounds.
• Bellows Falls continues to struggle. On Jan. 4, they lost at home to cross-river rivals Fall Mountain, 57-23. Sara Dumont had 12 points to lead the Terriers. Last Friday, the Terriers' game at Otter Valley was postponed.
Girls' hockey
• After three straight shutouts, the Brattleboro Colonels got blanked by Burr & Burton, 5-0, at Withington Rink on Jan. 5. The Colonels may have been a bit rusty, since this was their game since before the Christmas break.
Brattleboro then bounced back on Saturday with a 7-1 win at Middlebury. Maddie Rollins put on a show with 4 goals and 2 assists for the Colonels. Emily Wilson scored twice, Miranda Moseley had a pair of assists and Jessie Woodcock got her first goal of the season.
Goalie Brianna Snow had a solid game in goal, keeping Middlebury off the scoreboard until late in the game. Now 4-2, the Colonels are off until Jan. 17, when they travel to Manchester to face Burr & Burton.
Boys' hockey
• The Brattleboro Colonels came close to knocking off the top team in their league, Peoples Academy, on Friday night at Whitington Rink, only to fall short, 4-3.
Peoples took a 3-0 lead in an extremely physical game marked by lots of hitting and a fight that led to the ejection of Peoples' best player, James Caldwell. After Caldwell's ejection, Adam Griffin got the Colonels back into it by assisting on Jamie Martell goal, and then scoring a goal of his own late in the second period.
Peoples' defenseman Jack Thompson beat freshman goalie Greg DiSilva to start the third to make it 4-2. Senou Lynn scored from Martell for the Colonels with 39 seconds left in the game, but there wasn't enough time for Brattleboro to get the equalizer.
On Jan. 5, Hartford beat the Colonels, 3-1. Andy Harris scored the Colonels' only goal, while DiSilva made 21 saves.
Boys' basketball
• The Brattleboro Colonels started the new year with a 71-30 thrashing of Woodstock on Jan. 3. Twelve different players scored, led by Nate Forrett with 12 points. The Colonels led 26-4 after the first quarter and never looked back.
• Bellows Falls raced past Twin Valley, 74-50, on Jan 6 at Holland Gymnasium. Chris Goldschmidt put on a show for the Terriers with 19 points, including 9 in the first quarter, while Joe Aslin added 10 points. Troy Birch and Tony Bernard led the Wildcats with 16 and 13 points, respectively. On Jan. 5, the Terriers fell to Fall Mountain, 63-29.
Nordic skiing
• The Brattleboro Colonels closed out 2010 at the Mount Hor Hop in the Northeast Kingdom.
The varsity girls team finished fourth out of the 13 teams competing. Leah Silverman was tops for Colonels, coming in 17th with a time of 20 minutes, 32 seconds. Linnea Jahn placed 18th in 20:33, Emma Straus was 23rd in 20:44 and Maddi Shaw, Helen Manning, and Kara Piergentilli finished in 31st, 43rd and 70th, respectively.
The varsity boys team of Graham Glennon, Jacob Ellis, Anthony Burdo, Sam Green, and Noah Borochoff-Porte skied in the 5K race and finished 10th overall. Glennon was the top Colonels finisher, he came in 32nd out of 90 competitors with a time of 18:07. Ellis was 37th, just was 11 seconds behind Glennon, and Burdo, Green and Borochoff-Porte finished in 54th, 67th and 69th, respectively.
Brattleboro has yet to have a home meet this season. Saturday's snowfall came too late for a scheduled race at the VABEC complex off Old Guilford Road. That race was rescheduled to a later date. Instead, the Colonels traveled to Rutland, where both the girls and boys teams placed second.
Halle Lange won the girls race, while Jahn finished fifth. Other Colonel finishers included Silverman (12th), Shaw (13th), Straus (15th), Manning (17th), Piergentilli (24th), Katie Grasso (35th), Shelby Davis-Lane (38th) and Arjeta Rushiti (48th).
Glennon came in eighth overall to lead the Colonel boys. Ellis finished 11th, Anthony Burdo was 15th and Borochoff-Porte was 23rd. Other Colonel finishers included Green (30th), Oliver Pomazi (34th), Austin Lester (35th), Jeff Kahler (37th) and Jonathon Burdo (46th) also competed for the Colonels.
Wrapping up deer season
• The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife recently released its preliminary tally for the 2010 youth, archery, rifle, and muzzleloader deer hunting seasons.
With 95 percent of the reports in from the state's big game reporting stations, the total projected harvest was 15,675, a slight increase of the final 2009 figure of 15,237. The final report is due in March.
The department said that the 16-day rifle season accounted for the bulk of the kills, projected to be about 6,775 rifle bucks, compared to 6,017 in 2009. The other projected 2010 deer harvests are: 2,975 deer in archery season; 1,725 on youth weekend; and 4,200 during muzzleloader season. The total antlered buck harvest for all seasons is projected to be about 8,775 bucks, which is very close to what the department expected.
Based on weights of deer collected by wildlife biologists during the weekend of youth hunting in early November, the department said Vermont's deer herd is as healthy now as it has been at any time since the 1940s, when such data were first collected. Deer that go into winter with heavier body weighs are better able to survive harsh winter conditions.