RUTLAND — The No. 5 Middlebury Union High School football team rolled over host No. 4 Rutland on Friday, 42-14, in a Division I quarterfinal, by rushing for about 500 yards.
The 6-3 Tigers will next travel to face undefeated two-time defending champion Hartford in a semifinal. Their date with the top-seeded, 9-0 Hurricanes had yet to be officially announced as of Sunday, but was expected to be set for 7 p.m. this coming Friday.
The Tigers did not face Hartford this fall. Hartford romped over No. 8 South Burlington, 54-20, in another Friday quarterfinal. This Friday’s semifinal will be a rematch of the 2011 D-I final, won by the Hurricanes.
In Friday’s other semifinal, No. 2 BFA (8-1), a 17-14 winner over No. 7 Champlain Valley this past Friday, will host No. 3 Essex, which defeated No. 6 Colchester, 35-7, also this past Friday.
The Tigers’ win at Rutland avenged their 15-13 home loss five weeks before to the 5-4 Raiders. In that game, the Tigers outgained RHS, 355-212, but fumbled the ball away four times, twice deep in their own territory to set up Raider scores.
They did so once on Friday, giving Rutland the ball on the Tiger 12 to set up a second-quarter touchdown. But by then, the Tigers had already gained more than 200 yards and taken a 14-0 lead on quarterback Tyler Provencher’s 74-yard run and the first of two Nick Felkl TDs, a 20-yard run.
After the Raiders scored to make it 14-7 on a 1-yard Joe Sullivan run, the Tigers marched again and Mitchell Clarke capped the drive with a 21-yard run. RHS then converted a big play to make it 21-14 at halftime: QB Nick Boles hooked up with Rocco Stoutes for a 44-yard catch-and-run TD pass.
But the Tigers shut out the Raiders in the second half and poured on more offense, scoring on a 5-yard Felkl run, a 2-yard Clarke run and a 3-yard burst by Darren Desabrais that capped the scoring in the fourth quarter.
Felkl led the Tigers with about 220 yards on the ground, Provencher added 95, Clarke had 50, and Jakob Trautwein added 70. Provencher completed one pass, a 34-yarder to Sam Usilton.
Boles completed 12 of 25 passes for 140 yards for the Raiders, who were held by the Tigers to roughly 40 yards rushing.