Varsity Insider

Second year Burlington High football coach Brennan Carney has the Seahorses off to a 3-1 start this year after taking over a struggling program in 2008 that went winless.

Carney, a former three-sport standout at South Burlington, now has to prepare for Friday night when he hosts his old coach Joe McDonald. McDonald was in the top row of the Rice grandstand scouting on Saturday in the 21-0 win over the Green Knights.

Carney, who turned a winless Spaulding program in his first season into state champions the following year, said  BHS needs to take its next step after beating an inspired Rice squad.

“Other guys have to step up. It just can’t be Cooper (Wile) all the time. Andrew (Cane) played really well for us. Andrew is a good player. He is playing great and doing a lot of different things for us. We have a lot of guys that have to play a little better, a little crisper and we’ll be a better team,” said Carney after the win at Rice.

Kick-off at the D.G. Weaver Athletic Complex has been bumped to 7:30 Friday night because BHS is hosting Rutland in boys soccer at 4 p.m. on the turf field.

The CVU and South Burlington boys soccer teams have had plenty of showdowns in recent memory, particularly in the playoffs.

Today, the Division I powers meet for the second time this season, with the Redhawks (5-0) aiming for a sweep after blanking the Rebels (2-2-2) last month.

Game time is 4:30 in South Burlington. The rest of today’s high school schedule

Here’s how we stacked up after last weekend’s football picks:
Alex Abrami – 16-2
Kevin Commo -14-4
Shawn Corrow – 13-5
Mike Donoghue – 15-3
John A. Fantino – 14-4
Ted Ryan – 15-3
Hillary Read (guest picker) – 14-4.

The standings after week 4:
Mike Donoghue – 51-14
Guest pickers – 49-16
Alex Abrami – 48-17
John A. Fantino – 47-18
Kevin Commo – 46-19
Shawn Corrow – 46-19
Ted Ryan – 46-19

What are the odds that both goals by the same team in a soccer game would be scored at the same precise second of each half in a game?

Get you calculator out. It happened over the weekend in the Milton 2-0 win over the Mount Abraham boys.

Drew Marquis scored the game winner with 23:38 left in the first half.

Teammate Maxx Curtiss scored the insurance goal with 23:38 left in the second half.

Both with 12:38 left on the clock?

“It was kind of funny when you looked at the score sheet. There was no mistake,” said veteran Milton coach Glen Button Jr.  He said he couldn’t recall it ever happening at any level of soccer.

The teams at CVU enjoyed quite an afternoon at the Hinesburg campus during Saturday’s homecoming.

Here’s the rundown:

- The boys soccer team raced past defending champion BHS, 4-0, keeping its unbeaten record intact.
- The girls soccer team, a week after tying Colchester 0-0, blasted to a 4-0 win.
- The field hockey squad, the defending champions, blanked BHS 5-0, running its record to 7-0.
- The football topped Middlebury, 7-0, and moved to 4-0 in Division II.

So if you are keeping track at home: CVU teams 19, Homecoming opponents 0.

The phrase, “Not in our house” may be cliche and overused, but the Redhawks used that mantra on Saturday.

Could these CVU teams sweep to state championships later this season? And when you throw the girls XC team in the mix, CVU could own five fall crowns come November.

Scary thought for the rest of the state.

Junior forward Mike Clayton, who stayed on the sidelines last year with a broken femur, is making up for lost time for the undefeated Champlain Valley Union soccer team this fall.

 Clayton tallied two goals in the opening 12 minutes today in a 4-0 win over defending state champion Burlington as part of the Homecoming Weekend celebration.  He later added an assist for CVU, which improved to 5-0.

 “He was at every single practice last year,”  Redhawks coach T.J. Mead said about the dedicated student of the game.

 Clayton has scored eight goals and three assists in five games this year as the Redhawks leading scorer. He has at least one goal in each game with his best effort against Mount Abraham when he scored three goals and one assist.

They’re three undefeated teams in Division II football. Two of them will meet in Colchester as the Lakers play host to the U-32 Raiders tonight at 7.

At 3-0, the Lakers possess a dominant running game led by Devon Grammo and complemented by Alex Kozlowski. U-32 (3-0) counters with its own ground assault headlined by Elias LaCount.

CVU also has a unbeaten record in Div.II. The Redhawks face new divisional rival Middlebury (2-1) at home Saturday.

The Essex Hornets take their ‘Air Raid’ offense to Bennington for a potentially high-flying affair with Mount Anthony, which also employs a similar spread formation. The rest of tonight’s schedule.

For high school cross country, there’s only day that matters: the state meet.

While this year’s state championships are more than a month away — Oct. 31 at Thetford Academy — several teams and runners have shined brightly at a pair of early-season invitationals.

Let’s start with the girls:

Essex and CVU are the premier programs. Essex ended CVU’s 5-year reign atop D-I at last year’s state meet. So far in 2009, the programs each have victories at major meets (Essex and BHS invites).

At Burlington, Essex’s impressive pack running out-did CVU’s dependable strategy. The Hornets, led by freshman Rayna Dally, took places 7, 8, 9 and 12, 13. Summer Spillane and Adrienne Devita have been the Redhawks top runners.

Let’s rank them:
Teams:
1. Essex
2. CVU
3. South Burlington
Runners:
1. Hannah Rowe, St. Johnsbury
2. Emily Anderson, Middlebury
3. Jenna Griffith, Colchester

On the boys side, I don’t see much of a challenge for Essex in the D-I race.

Let’s rank them:
Teams:
1. Essex
2. South Burlington
3. Harwood
Runners:
1. Ben Lustgarten, BHS
2. Charlie Klilne, Essex
3. Nick Marshall, MMU

These rankings are subject to change. Give me your thoughts on some up-and-coming teams and runners, particularly in the smaller divisions.

Look ahead: The Manchester, N.H. invitational is Saturday, with Thetford’s Woods Trail Run the following weekend. Those meets bring a heap of talent from across the northeast. Of Vermont’s best, Rowe is the likely candidate to post a victory in one of the elite divisions over the next two weekends.

If you are looking for a high school game to watch today, I recommend CVU vs. MMU in girls soccer.

As mentioned in today’s Big Game in the Free Press, the Cougars are 4-0 — the same wins they had in 2008 — but meet a imposing challenge in 4-0-1 CVU today at the Volunteers Green in Richmond.

Remember, start time is a bit earlier than most games at 3:30 p.m.

The Colchester High School girls soccer team suffered through a disappointing 2-11-1 season in 2008.

Then the playoffs came, and the Lakers reeled off two upsets before falling in a tightly-contested battle with Essex in the Division I semifinals.

The Lakers lost 10 players to graduation, including Kirsten Bombardier and Caitlin Nedde — two midfielders that made our Free Press all-state soccer second team. Then Amanda Brigante and Anna Demasi, two players that coach Jeff Paul expected to suit up for this season, were lost. Brigante to injury and Demasi to prep school.

Those missing players might be setbacks for other teams. Not Paul’s squad, which has a unique blend of talent, youth and chemistry that has them reaching for higher expectations.

“It’s a really young team,” said Paul, whose squad boosts eight sophomores and six juniors. “It’s one of the greatest teams we’ve had here. They are so passionate.”

Through five games, the Lakers are 2-2-1, including a 0-0 deadlock vs. unbeaten CVU.

Of course, Colchester starts and ends with U.S. youth national team member Lauren Bernard, a sophomore. She makes her teammates better players, as Bernard’s former Nordic coach Hank Bechtel said.

Paul mentions other impact players in striker Katherine Morley, sweeper Jenna Weed and Rachel Seaman, the team’s stopper. Morley and Seaman are juniors while Weed, one of Bernard’s best friends, is a sophomore.

A 1-0 overtime loss to BFA-St. Albans on Saturday — two days after battling CVU — points to the Metro/Division I’s parity and strength from top to bottom this season. Whether or not the Lakers can contend for the title this fall, the foundation is in place for the next two years — at least.