CASTLETON – By any measure, the Middlebury Union High School football team had a great season after returning to Division I this fall.
But the No. 3 Tigers didn’t have a great day in Saturday’s Division I final at Castleton State College, when they were hampered by a rash of injuries and handcuffed by undefeated No. 1 Hartford, 42-6.
MIDDLEBURY — The team that keeps finding a way to win did it again on Friday night.
With a minute-and-a-half left in the Division I football quarterfinal at Doc Collins Field, a No. 6 Colchester team that moments before mounted a game-tying 80-yard drive had to punt from its own 23.
On the sidelines, assistant coach Jed Malcolm told the Tiger punt team, including senior defensive end Dylan Lanpher, to be ready.
MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Union High School football team shrugged off wind, rain, mud and a tough visiting Colchester squad on Friday to claim a pivotal Division I game, 25-8.
The Lakers dropped to 4-3, while the Tigers are 6-1, 5-1 in D-I. A win at Champlain Valley (5-2) on Saturday should clinch the Tigers a top-four playoff berth and a first-round home game. Quality points rankings (QPRs) will then determine seeds.
MIDDLEBURY — Friday was another day at the office for the Middlebury Union High School football team’s offensive line, fullback Jordan Connor and tailback Marshall Hastings.
With the linemen and Connor paving the way, Hastings bolted for 161 of the Tigers 257 rushing yards as MUHS bulldozed visiting Mount Anthony, 33-12, and improved to 3-0 in their return to Division I.
BRANDON — The Otter Valley Union High School football team on Saturday made a winner of new head coach Jim Hill and accomplished something the Otters failed to do in 2010 — come out on top in a home game.
In the Division II and season opener for both teams, OV spotted Springfield the first eight points and scored the next 36 on the way to a 36-16 victory.
MIDDLEBURY — This fall at Middlebury College’s Alumni Stadium, three Panther football assistant coaches will be applying lessons they say they learned a little bit to the east at Middlebury Union High School’s Doc Collins Field, home of the football Tigers.
Panther Head Football Coach Bob Ritter has six paid assistants. When 2002 MUHS graduate Shem Johnston-Bloom signed on this summer as Ritter’s recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach, that meant half of those aides are former MUHS football standouts.
