Vermont high school football: What we learned in Week 1 of the 2023 season

Who stood out in the opening week of the 2023 Vermont high school football season? What were some of the key stats and moments that sent teams to victories or defeat?

Here are a few highlights worthy of a spotlight from this week's slate of games. Read on below for more on Hartford at St. Johnsbury, Colchester hosting U-32, Mount Mansfield at BFA-St. Albans and North Country at Burlington/South Burlington.

Come back Saturday evening for more What We Learned about the opening weekend of the season.

Enjoy!

Vermont high school football: Scores, results, stats from Week 1.

Rice staves off BFA-Fairfax/Lamoille

BFA-Fairfax/Lamoille entered Week 1 with a reputation and prowess in the ground game.

But Rice was up to the task. The Green Knights held the Bullets to just 24 rush yards in the second quarter and forced two turnovers in the opening frame to build a 14-0 lead.

“Fairfax is one of those teams you circle on your schedule,” Rice coach Chad Cioffi said. “I don't care what division they are, what week you're playing them, they're a team that shows up gives their A-game every week.”

The Green Knights used the early lead to hold off Fairfax’s late run for a 20-14 win on Saturday in Fairfax.

Dallas St. Peter was 11 of 20 for 144 yards and a pair of scores to Holden Mulvey (43-yard TD catch, 14-yard). Mulvey’s second score, a corner route in the end zone, proved to be the difference with 10:17 left in regulation.

“We’ve got some fast receivers. I think it was just looking at film and seeing what routes we could use and what we thought might be successful,” Cioffi said. “We were lucky enough to kind of catch their secondary off guard on a few things but again, that's a tight defense to try to get anything.”

Darius Pelton’s 4-yard TD rush with 4:14 left cut the deficit to 20-16. Fairfax/Lamoille held Rice on the ensuing possession, but turned the ball over on downs with 2:37 left.

North Country rallies for cross-division win

Watson Laffoon’s punishing running and Cooper Wheeler’s goal line prowess had North Country football in midseason form.

The Falcons’ backfield duo accounted for five total touchdowns in North Country’s 34-22 comeback win on the road against Division I’s Burlington/South Burlington Friday night. The Falcons rallied in the cross-division contest after an injury to a North Country player halted the game for nearly 30 minutes in the second frame.

“Absolutely amazed,” North Country coach Lonnie Wade said of the win. “If you'd have told me after all that went down in the second quarter that these guys would, first of all be able to play and finish a game, I'd have been stunned. And then come out and win the game is just amazing to me.”

Wade said the Falcons had discussed ending the contest after the injury, but continued play and on the ensuing possession, Laffoon (23 carries for 121 yards; 10 of 18 for 110 yards) hit Wheeler for a 13-yard touchdown off a play-action fake to cut the deficit to 22-18.

“When something like this happens, you go one of two ways,” Wade said of playing after the injury. “The easy way is to walk away and it's understandable if you do, and the hard way is to persevere through it and they did.”

The Falcons forced a SeaWolves safety with 16 seconds left in the half to trail 22-20. Wheeler put North Country ahead for the first time, a 27-22 advantage with 7:51 left in the third. The junior’s fourth touchdown, an 8-yard TD rush, capped the scoring with 38 seconds left in the third quarter.

“We started off the season with three seniors returning not able to play due to injury and then to have this all happen, if you'd have told me this was going to happen, I'd say you are crazy,” Wade said. “Honestly, it just amazed me.”

Burlington/South Burlington’s Ahmed Diawara had touchdown runs of 24 and 73 yards.

Rathburn’s plays the difference in BFA’s win over MMU

Deagan Rathburn is the goalie for the BFA-St. Albans boys hockey team. And the senior used his game-saving abilities in Friday’s narrow, 12-8 decision over visiting Mount Mansfield.

Rathburn set up the Bobwhites’ opening score with an interception for a 6-0 lead, and then sealed the Week 1 triumph after hauling in Seneca Durocher’s pass for an untouched, 46-yard scoring scamper in the final minute of the third quarter.

The late score was needed, too, as MMU mounted a comeback bid on the strength of Nathan Messier’s aerial strikes over the middle to Luke Subin-Billingsley.

The Cougars cut the margin to 12-8 with 1:57 to go on a 15-yard connection from Messier to Subin-Billingsley and Nashua Poor’s ensuing two-point conversion run. But the Bobwhites recovered the onside kick before running out the clock.

Friday’s opener featured a combined five turnovers, including on back-to-back lost fumbles on the team’s opening possessions, and several stoppages for leg cramps. And in a game played mostly between the 20s, Rathburn’s INT swayed momentum before the break.

Rathburn leaped over the middle to snag the pick and, two plays later, Danie Rafferty scooted in from 9 yards out with 3:39 until the break.

In the lead-up to Rathburn’s score, Durocher, who ran for a game-high 110 yards, broke off a 19-yarder to get BFA into MMU territory. One play later, Durocher lofted a high-arcing ball for Rathburn to race underneath to grab and walk to paydirt.

Colchester defense locks up U-32

In typical Week 1 fashion, turnovers, penalties and other mistakes plagued the U-32 at Colchester Division II matchup.

But the Lakers had at least one thing going for them: Their defense appeared in midseason form.

Led by linebacker Isaac Karlin’s punishing style and Mason Sheltra’s opportunistic play, the Lakers dispatched U-32 for an 18-0, season-opening victory on Thursday night.

Karlin picked up three sacks, a fumble recovery and several more tackles for loss, and Sheltra snagged an interception on the first offensive play of the second half while also running for two scores as the Lakers pulled away from a tough U-32 squad.

Colchester limited U-32 to 77 yards from scrimmage. The visiting Raiders also punted three times, fumbled twice in the backfield, threw an INT and turned it over on downs on four occasions.

“We’ll take that first win. (Karlin) was ridiculous. He’s such a good ballplayer and he’s listening and doing things the right way,” Colchester coach Tom Perry said. “He wasn’t alone. The defense was great. We tackled, we were in good position. I would say the defense was the highlight of the night for sure.”

After Colchester’s game-opening drive stalled in U-32 territory at the 30-yard line, the Raiders had its best series on offense. U-32 drove to the fringe of the red zone before Laker linebacker Matthew Walehersheit sacked U-32 quarterback Charlie Fitzpatrick on third down to squash the promising scoring chance.

“They do some really nice stuff with their RPO game and it was tough for us early,” Perry said of U-32’s attack. “But I thought we cleaned that up.”

On the ensuing possession, Colchester quarterback Jordan Lavoie found receiver Josh Labelle over the middle for a 32-yard pickup. After Brody Coppins (62 rushing yards) chugged for gains of 14 and 11 yards to push Colchester inside the U-32 20-yard line, Lavoie slipped a screen pass to Nick Chicoine for a 7-yard TD on the first play of the second quarter.

Up 6-0 at the break, Colchester relied on its defense to put the game away. Sheltra, a sophomore, gathered Fitzpatrick’s pass over the middle for the INT to open the second half. Four plays later, Sheltra scored from 5 yards out to double the advantage.

U-32 punted on its next possession and then fumbled the snap on its next series, with Colchester’s Graeson Seissen gobbling up possession. On the next play from scrimmage, Sheltra took a jet sweep and, with Karlin out in space blocking as a pulling guard, weaved his way for a 19-yard scoring scamper and the game’s final margin.

Thursday’s game was originally scheduled to be played at U-32. But field conditions at the East Montpelier campus were unplayable, forcing the site change. U-32 was still considered the home team for Thursday’s opener.

The Lakers will host St. Johnsbury in Week 2 next Friday night.

“We are going to continue to be aggressive on defense. We aren’t very big, but we are athletic,” Perry said.

Related: Everything Vermont high school football

Hartford avenges last year's opener

Last season Hartford football entered the year with high hopes. The Hurricanes' fire was quickly stomped out at home in a thrashing against St. Johnsbury.

The Hurricanes were ready to repay the favor.

“Being with the way we started last year and kind of being embarrassed at our place, we were hoping to come out and make a statement here,” Hartford coach Matt Trombly said.

To the tune of three unanswered scores that spanned halftime, Hartford (1-0) dismantled St. Johnsbury 48-21 on Thursday at SJA’s Fairbanks Field in a season-opening triumph.

“Last year was a tough year with injuries and some other things and going out in the first round in the playoffs, this group is really hungry,” Trombly said. “Especially we've got a really good group of seniors that don't want to see the season slip away.”

The third-ranked team in our preseason Top 10 trailed 14-13 with 5:29 left in the first half when SJA’s Carter Bunnell connected with Davis Palmieri on a rope for an 18-yard score. But Hartford answered with a six-play, 76-yard drive in just over three minutes when Brody Tyburski scampered off the left side for a 4-yard touchdown.

Hartford turned the Hilltoppers over on downs at their own 45-yard line with 57 seconds left and Brayden Trombly, the coach’s son, took one play to find Ezra Mock behind the defense. Mock, lined up on the right side, adjusted to the ball floated back into the middle of the field and hauled in the score for a 26-14 halftime advantage.

“All-gas, no-brakes. That was going to be the mindset coming out and that's what we did start-to-finish,” Brayden Trombly said.  “There's definitely some stuff to clean up … but the effort was definitely there.”

Trombly (11 carries for 93 yards; 4-for-7 for 118 yards) piled in his one of his four total touchdowns just four plays into the third quarter to put Hartford ahead 33-14. Tyburski added a 23-yard TD catch and Mock supplied a 5-yard TD rush. Junior Nick Daniels had a 1-yard score and a 2-point conversion to cap the scoring for the Hurricanes.

“That was our first test to kind of gauge on how we're going to fit into Division I this year as far as competition goes, and I think we passed the test tonight,” Matt Trombly said.

St. Johnsbury (0-1) held a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when Bunnell hit Jordan Roberts for a 35-yard touchdown. Holden Newland’s connection with Vincent Palmieri late in the fourth quarter rounded out the Hilltoppers’ scoring.

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

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont H.S. football: What we learned in Week 1 of the 2023 season