Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl: Vermont ends three-game drought, corrals New Hampshire

CASTLETON - Caleb LeVasseur's Colchester Lakers pulled off a hook-and-ladder in Week 7 last year for a touchdown.

He brought the game-breaking play to the Vermont Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl team and the Green Mountain State nearly named the diversion after his alma mater.

“I knew it was gonna work,” LeVasseur said. “It's also just a fun play and it's an all-star game, so it's a really good add and we executed it really well in practice.”

Vermont perfected the trickery as Max Destito threw to Tristan Evans, who flipped back to a racing LeVasseur for a 67-yard touchdown for the Green Mountain State.

“We did put him in that spot because we assumed he had a little bit of experience, but also because he's lightning fast,” Vermont coach Greg Balch said of LeVasseur.

The second half deception stunned New Hampshire as Vermont captured its first Shrine Bowl since 2018 with a 28-6 triumph in front of 4,200 at Castleton University’s Dave Wolk Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

New Hampshire leads the all-time series 50-17-2, but 2023’s sugar-rich bragging rights are headed into the Green Mountains.

“We were just all fired up ready to get out there and show New Hampshire that we wanted this more than them,” LeVasseur said. “We wanted to break that streak of losing and to do that today and I'm really proud.”

Related: CVU's Destito returns, aims to lead Vermont squad vs. NH

Balch led the 2018 Vermont squad and returned to its sidelines to end New Hampshire’s reign in the annual summer showcase.

“Just a tremendous group of players,” Balch said of Vermont. “Attitude, effort wise, in every way that you can imagine, these guys are tremendous.”

New Hampshire, inside the Vermont 10-yard line, capitalized on a botched punt attempt late in the first quarter as Bow’s Ryan Lover punched in the game’s opening score from a yard out.

But midway through the second frame Vermont marched down Castleton’s newly laid turf. And on 3-and-4 inside the 20, U-32’s Crosse Gariboldi broke off the right side for a 12-yard rush.

Vermont then capped the 14-play, 72-yard drive with a pair of rushes to push across its first Shrine Bowl score since 2019 as Quinn Murphy dove across paydirt from two yards out for a 7-6 advantage with 6:48 left in the half.

“We showed them the 2018 game, the last time that Vermont won, and it was a little bit surprising just how into that game they got,” Balch said. “I said, ‘Look you have a chance to break the New Hampshire streak and start your own or you can keep it going.’”

New Hampshire, with 35 seconds left in the half, started on its own 43-yard line before Zack Doward completed to Austin Wells for 18 yards. With seconds left in the frame, Doward was intercepted by Essex’s Tanner Robbins, who found a crease up the left sideline for a 73-yard touchdown. The corner, who had an interception earlier in the contest, was spurred by blocks from Jaheim Hughes and Keevon Parks.

“We have great receivers on this team and he was doing a good job of being competitive with them all week,” Balch said of Robbins. “We knew what we had in him and he had a great game. I thought that pick-six (timing) was huge.”

Said Robbins: “I was just trying to make a play and the ball kind of just came to me. Coming into this I was thinking I was gonna get one (interception).”

Vermont stayed aggressive in the second half as Bellows Falls’ Jamison Nystrom flew in from the secondary to scoop a NH fumble setting up VT at the 32-yard line with 29 seconds left in the third stanza. Five plays later Murphy tallied again, this time from 10 yards out for a 21-6 lead.

“We have not won the game yet. That was the message,” Balch said of halftime. “You can be excited that we're on a high note. … But we haven't won the game.”

Vermont contained New Hampshire to just 64 rush yards on 31 attempts to build its advantage before LeVasseur’s long score stamped the Shrine Bowl Green and Gold with 7:09 left in the fourth quarter.

Caden Haskell tallied 34 yards on nine carries for Vermont, which had 245 total yards of offense. Destito was 3-of-8 for 92 yards. Evans and Alex Provost both hauled in a pair of receptions for 63 combined yards and Hartford’s Connor Tierney had seven tackles to lead VT.

New Hampshire was paced by Dylan Welch’s 27 yards on the ground.

“We had some good plays, the hook and lateral was one that we worked on all week,” Balch said. “It looked great, but I'm not a trick play guy. … But I was committed to this game and to find the situation for it and that seemed like the right spot.”

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Contact Jacob Rousseau at JRousseau@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @ByJacobRousseau

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl: Vermont ends three-game drought, corrals NH