Everything you need to know for the 2023 H.S. football championship tripleheader
The 2023 Vermont high school football championship tripleheader is upon us.
On Saturday, Hartford, Burr and Burton, North Country, Colchester, Woodstock and Windsor will descend on Rutland High School’s Alumni Field searching for glory. Windsor is the only holdover this year to reach the final game after winning back-to-back titles in Division III.
The Falcons are in the longest title drought among the remaining teams (their last championship win was 1997). A Hartford win would break a three-way tie for the most state championships in Vermont history. BBA is just four years removed from a title, while Colchester won in 2009 and Woodstock topped the D-III field in 2018.
Read on for our all-encompassing high school football preview.
Enjoy!
How they got here: Scores and stats from semifinal weekend
Division I
► Teams: No. 1 Hartford (10-0) vs. No. 2 Burr and Burton (9-1)
► Game time: 5 p.m.
► Site: Rutland High School.
► How to watch online: NFHS network (paid subscription).
► Teams' regular-season meeting: Hartford 43, Burr and Burton 7.
► Title-game matchup: The Week 4 drubbing of Burr and Burton is not expected on Saturday. Hartford caught the Bulldogs on a bad night as BBA never got their footing on the road. Since then, the Bulldogs have played a perfect stretch with quarterback Jack McCoy and are eyeing their first title since Joey McCoy brought Manchester a championship in 2019. Hartford never rested this season, and outside of a semifinal scare against Middlebury, have played exceptional football with Brayden Trombly under center. Hartford’s 12 all-time championship wins are tied with Bellows Falls and Mount St. Joseph for most in the state.
Trombly has 79 rushes for 1,015 yards and 15 touchdowns with 680 passing yards and eight TDs to just one interception. The Hurricanes, with an outstanding offensive line, have at least five options to run the ball, but the senior leads the way and is quick to turn four yards into 40. He also plays safety and has snagged two interceptions.
Brody Tyburski is the second leading rusher with 600 yards on 85 attempts and eight touchdowns. The senior is a bruiser and is just as remarkable on defense at the edge position.
McCoy’s statistical season is almost too-good-to-believe. The senior has 1,877 passing yards and 24 touchdowns with a 67% completion percentage. On the ground he’s racked up 1,033 yards and another 18 touchdowns. All told, McCoy eclipsed 100 career touchdowns in the semifinals. But maybe most impressive of the Manchester star, with such a heavy usage rate, he’s only turned the ball over four times.
The Bulldogs graduated a few from their skill group this year and have five receivers with more than 20 targets. Kaleb Gabert’s 41 receptions (on 50 targets) for 567 yards and eight touchdowns pace the group. Peyton Gray’s 440 rush yards are second on the team. Defensively, JT Wright has 71 tackles and McCoy has made 61 stops as the Bulldogs only allow 17 points per game.
► Hartford coach Matt Trombly: "(McCoy) runs the ball well and in passing situations, he can throw the ball very well. If things aren't there, he can make plays with his feet, so from a defensive lineman standpoint, you have to keep him contained in the pocket and get pressure on him."
► BBA coach Tom McCoy: "(Hartford is) coached really well. I think they've got speed, I would say a couple of their skill guys have some speed. And then I think they're physical, they're pretty physical at the line of scrimmage."
Division II
► Teams: No. 2 North Country (8-2) vs. No. 4 Colchester (5-5)
► Game time: 2 p.m.
► Site: Rutland High School.
► How to watch online: NFHS network (paid subscription).
► Teams' regular-season meeting: Did not meet.
► Title-game matchup: Both teams had difficult regular-season schedules as North Country faced a pair of D-I teams and hosted Bellows Falls (twice) and Fair Haven. Colchester went winless in Metro League against all D-I teams, but did carve out a road win against Mount Anthony. The Falcons and Lakers are battle-tested boasting defenses that, against D-II teams, have fared well. The Lakers, through four games, haven’t surrendered a point against opponents in their own division, while the Falcons are allowing just over 13 points per game in similar contests.
North Country is led by a stable of capable runners, which includes quarterback Watson Laffoon and Hayden Boivin. North Country is searching for its first championship since 1997 and reaches the title game for the first time since 2004. Last year they started 4-0 before losing the last five, but it prepared the program for this year’s slate which included back-to-back losses in week 3 and 4. The Falcons then trailed Woodstock entering the fourth quarter of Week 5, but rallied for a 15-point win. The triumph was a confidence-building moment as the Falcons won out, including a 21-20 overtime win against Bellows Falls in the semifinals.
Colchester enters its fourth title game all-time and first since beating Champlain Valley for the D-II championship in 2009. The Lakers’ unique schedule prepared them for a deep playoff run. In Week 5, the Lakers led at BFA-St. Albans for three quarters before the larger program overcame Colchester in the final frame. But, the loss acted as a rallying point for the Lakers against a bigger opponent. Senior quarterback Jordan Lavoie leads the offense, that has a few options at running back and averages about 100 rush and pass yards per game. His leading receiver is Mason Cardinal, who earlier this season had about 250 yards on 13 catches with four touchdowns. Isaac Karlin, a physical linebacker, is the group’s top defender and plays on the offensive line.
► North Country coach Lonnie Wade: "A little bit of a theme this year is, our biggest opponent is us right now. The mental aspect of (the game) and talking about that, I think has really helped us. And of course, the maturity of these guys, we were a very young team last year. ... Basically only four seniors on last year's team and there's quite a maturing process that happens between junior and senior year."
► Colchester coach Tom Perry: "I think we've played tough defense all year, we just athletically match up better on defense than we do on offense and it's the same kids. It just happens to be the way we set up and play. And again the fact that I have really tough and resilient kids, they continue to grow. ... The kids play hard and they try to be in the right place and I think they've probably more than any year in the last five, this group has embraced their coaching."
Division III
► Teams: No. 1 Woodstock (9-1) vs. No. 2 Windsor (8-1)
► Game time: 11 a.m.
► Site: Rutland High School.
► How to watch online: NFHS network (paid subscription).
► Teams' regular-season meeting: Woodstock 36, Windsor 15.
► Title-game matchup: Woodstock ended Windsor’s 28-game win streak in the final week of the regular season as Caeden Perrault compiled 212 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries in the win. The Wasps’ lone loss was against North Country in Week 5, but they scored 32 points per game and increased their wins by five already this season. Windsor rolled everyone other than Woodstock and only allowed 67 total points across those eight wins. This is the fourth all-time title matchup between Woodstock and Windsor (2001, 2011 and 2017).
Woodstock’s backfield is led by Perreault, who has 981 rush yards with 15 touchdowns. The junior has 1,388 all-purpose yards and 19 TDs and on defense has 100 tackles with 3 INTs. The Wasps are a younger team with an all-junior backfield and had a trial by fire to start the season against Mill River and Springfield. After fighting through early adversity and still pulling out wins in Weeks 2 and 3, Woodstock coach Ramsey Worrell said he wasn’t thinking championship right away but knew he had a special team. Vincent Petrone also snags carries and has played at corner, safety and linebacker on defense.
Windsor, despite losing in Week 8, is still D-III’s royalty after winning back-to-back championships. It’s a different team than the previous two seasons, but still has plenty of options in the backfield. Brady Olmstead (80 carries for 651 yards; 7 rush TDs), Corey Lockwood (73 carries for 507 yards; 6 rush TDs) and Brody Osgood (60 carries for 491 yards; 8 rush TDs) all pace a balanced attack. The Yellow Jackets can also throw the ball when they need to with Daniel Haugaard-Steffensen leading the corps with 17 catches for 433 yards and five touchdowns. Windsor has only surrendered nine turnovers this year.
► Woodstock coach Ramsey Worrell: "I thought we played well (in the first game against Windsor). I didn't think we played our best game and I still don't think we've played our best game. I thought we caught some breaks and caught them in some stuff, and things kind of went our way that night."
► Windsor coach Greg Balch: "It was a strange season for us. We had a number of new players to the program with a lot of turnover, so there was kind of finding our way through the season. Hopefully we've found that now, but it's taking longer than it normally would to feel like we're hitting our stride. Certainly a wake-up call for us was the loss against Woodstock."
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Contact Jacob Rousseau at JRousseau@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @ByJacobRousseau.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont H.S. football: Sizing up the 2023 football state championships
