Varsity Insider

Many Winooski High School boys soccer players are refugees. Some are so poor they can’t afford to buy own their own soccer cleats.  Enosburg remedied the situation this week.

A few days before Friday’s Division III quarterfinal between Enosburg and Winooski, Enosburg athletic director Chris Brigham dropped off 20 pairs of cleats to Winooski coach Cory Payson.  Talk about sportsmanship.

Here’s how the kind act came to fruition. During casual chitchat after the teams’ regular-season meeting earlier this month, Payson told Brigham about the hardship some of his players faced. That inspired Brigham to orchestrate a “shoe drive” to help Winooski, a Mountain Division rival.

“I’ve heard that other times and it’s kind of fizzled,” Payson said, “but I got an email yesterday saying ‘I’ve got 20 pairs of cleats; I’m dropping them off.’”

Very classy.

Payson said some of his players were wearing the cleats during Friday’s penalty kick shootout win over Enosburg, which booked Winooski’s first trip to the semifinals in the history of the program. He said he’ll make sure some of the donations reach the town’s recreational youth soccer program to help other kids in need.

One of my favorite albums — one that is a great for a road trip — is Tom Petty’s Highway Companion (2006).

“Big Weekend” is a song on the album that always gets me in a good mood for, you guessed it, the weekend.

Anyways, the Vermont high school fall sports playoff season enters its first “big weekend” with plenty of soccer quarterfinals, field hockey championships and football regular-season finales.

Here’s the rundown of this weekend’s best matchups, starting with today’s action:

Friday

Field hockey: No. 3 Windsor vs. No. 8 Woodstock, at Castleton State College, 7:45 p.m.

Soccer: There are 13 boys quarterfinal games and 1 girls quarters matchup. The big tilt is in Division I where No. 6 South Burlington meets No. 3 Essex. The Rebels handed the Hornets a surprising 4-0 defeat two weeks ago. In Division III, the Winooski boys are seeking the program’s first semifinals appearance.

Football: Big-time games in Division II: Colchester at Milton; Otter Valley at Middlebury; and Mount Mansfield at U-32. Middlebury, Milton and U-32 are fourth, fifth and sixth in the latest QPR rankings. Should be fun to see how this shakes out tonight.

Saturday

Field hockey:
At Castleton State College
Division I: No. 1 Champlain Valley vs. No. 2 Hartford, 5 p.m. (Can CVU repeat and complete a perfect season?)
Division III: No. 1 Rice Memorial vs. No. 2 Stowe, 3 p.m. (Rice aims for back-to-back at Stowe’s expense again)

Cross Country: The state championships are at Thetford Academy. Read my preview about how illnesses may affect the title chases.

Soccer: 15 girls quarterfinal and 3 boys quarterfinal games. I like the BFA-St. Albans vs. Burlington girls game. CVU has a doubleheader: The boys take on MMU at 10:30 a.m., and the girls have St. Johnsbury at 3 p.m.

Football: St. Johnsbury at Lyndon meet in this old-time rivalry simply called The Game — the 105th meeting.

There’s your weekend preview. I’m headed to Thetford to cover the cross country championships. You can bet I’ll bring Petty’s Highway Companion along for the ride.

Division I

Final four:
No. 3 Rice over No. 2 CVU
No. 5 Burlington over No. 1 Burr and Burton

Final: Rice 1, BHS 0
- Rice has a legitimate shot at its first title in 10 years. BHS, the defending champs, doesn’t have the same firepower as last year but its defense has been harder to score on than CC Sabathia. The Stephanie Jaques-led Seahorses have allowed five goals and never more than 1 goal in a game. Brittany Pfaff (99 career goals) has one of the goals in a 1-0 Rice win in September.

Division II

Final four:
No. 1 Montpelier over No. 4 Harwood
No. 3 Green Mountain Valley School over No. 3 Milton

Final: Green Mountain Valley 3, Montpelier 2
- GMVS influx of scoring talent — sisters Sara and Anna Kikut, former BHS players — is enough to hold off Montpelier’s run to a title.

Division III

Final four:
No. 1 Mill River over No. 4 Oxbow
No. 2 BFA-Fairfax over No. 2 Peoples

Final: Fairfax 3, Mill River 1
- After dispatching rival and playoff tormentor Peoples in the semifinals, Fairfax’s first championship in program history is undeniable.

Division IV

Final four:
No. 1 Arlington over No. 5 Williamstown
No. 3 Black River over No. 2 South Royalton

Final: Arlington 3, Black River 2
- Aside from one mid-season hiccup, Arlington has been perfect. Black River is the three-time defending champs. Should be a good game. Edge goes to Arlington.

The 2009 Vermont high school soccer tournaments get under way Tuesday.

Time for some bold predictions.

You can find the pairings here. Let’s start with the boys tournament:

Division I

Final four:
No. 1 Champlain Valley over No. 4 Spaulding
No. 3 Essex over No. 2 Burr and Burton

Final: CVU 2, Essex 1
-These two Metro powers have been on a collision course all season — both delivering regular-season blows; Essex a thrilling 2-1 win on Oct. 3 countered by CVU’s 3-1 triumph a week later. The return of Jake Orr should bode well for Essex, but the Redhawks, motivated from last season’s non-championship, are on a mission.

Division II

Final four:
No. 4 U-32 over No. 8 Montpelier
No. 2 Hartford over No. 3 Milton

Final: Hartford 3, U-32 1
- Both teams have been hot down the stretch. Hartford hasn’t lost in a month, including avenging a loss to Springfield, the top seed in the tournament. U-32, the defending champs is on a six-game roll.

Division III

Final four:
No.4 Winooski over No.1 Lake Region
No. 2 Stowe over No. 3 Leland & Gray

Final: Stowe 3, Winooski 2
- The Spartans have had a great season, but Stowe hasn’t lost to a Div. III opponent all season. Don’t expect that to change in this tournament.

Division IV

Final four:
No. 1 Proctor over No. 4 Black River
No. 3 Twin Valley over No. 2 Sharon

Final: Proctor 4, Twin Valley 1
- Proctor has steamrolled its competition this fall, scoring 63 goals while yielding only 4 (with 11 shutouts). Proctor’s party keeps going in the postseason.

Agree or disagree with my predictions? Let me know in the comments section.

I’ll have the girls predictions around noon Tuesday.

Essex coach Scott Mosher just called in his home game against BFA-St. Albans. The Hornets won 2-1 to close out their regular season with a 11-3 mark and likely earning the third seed in the Division I high school soccer tournament.

A key contributor in the win was Jake Orr — the one of hockey and golf fame, Mosher said. In his second game back from tearing his meniscus in pre-season, Orr assisted on Paul Bianchi’s first-half goals.

A return to the soccer pitch was initially a long shot. The more likely scenario for the Essex senior was lacing up his hockey skates for the winter season.

But Orr yearned to play soccer again this fall, Mosher said, working hard to make that a reality.

He played around 65 minutes and earned two starts in a pair of games. With the playoffs looming, Orr’s athleticism will be another important piece to an already championship-contending squad.

“He adds another dimension, such an athletic kid,” Mosher said. “He’s just another strong midfielder who creates a lot of things.”

The top two seeds (Otter Valley and U-32) were eliminated from the Division II high school field hockey tournament. That leaves No. 3 Windsor and No. 4 Milton at home for its semifinal games.

I was at Milton’s quarterfinal victory over Spaulding on Friday. Lots of positives for the Milton side: strong defense, controlling midfield and a finishing offense.

As mentioned in the game story, Milton has made a dramatic turnaround. The Yellowjackets went through winless seasons in 2007 and 2008. After Friday’s win — its first Div.-II playoff triumph since 1995 — the Yellowjackets can continue its “Cinderella” story, as coach Tiffany Stuart said, in Tuesday’s home semifinal game against Woodstock.

It will be Milton’s first semifinal at home since its 1982 championship season.

Windsor, which won three Div. II titles in the 90s’ and early 2000s, will play Springfield.

For Friday’s field hockey playoff roundup, click here.

For complete tournament results, click here.

Just a reminder: League crowns in the NVAC Metro and Mountain championships are on the line this weekend.

The Metro races are at Missisquoi Valley Union High School in Swanton; the Mountain is at U-32 High School in East Montpelier.

Meet information for Metro championships can be found here.

Of course, this weekend is just a prelude to the state championships on Halloween in Thetford.

Mike Donoghue just about has this year’s Fearless Free Press Football Forecast in the bag. With just four weeks to go, he’s stretched his lead to an impressive nine game. His 15-3 record this week shared the top spot with Kevin Commo, marking the third week in a row Mike has been first or tied for first.

Meanwhile, the guest pickers continue to struggle. The 11-7 of USA Today’s Andy Gardiner was two games worse than any of the Free Press regulars and dropped the group of Free Press sports alumni three games behind Shawn Corrow in the race to avoid the basement.

The full Week 7 results:

Mike Donoghue 15-3
Kevin Commo 15-3
Ted Ryan 14-4
Alex Abrami 13-5
Shawn Corrow 13-5
John A. Fantino 13-5
Andy Gardiner (alumnus) 11-7

And the overall standings are:

Donoghue 98-22
Commo 89-31
Fantino 89-31
Abrami 86-34
Ryan 85-35
Corrow 84-36
Alumni 81-39

Football fans are still talking about the four safeties that Mount Anthony scored in the 36-0 win over Burlington High at Buck Hard Field on Friday night.

“How is it possible?” or “How did they do it?” was the most asked question wherever I’ve gone over the last couple of days.

 What is interesting is that Mount Anthony scored each in a different way.

The first safety was a backwards toss by the quarterback that went out of the end zone in the second period. The second happened after an ill advised attempt by BHS in the third quarter to run an interception out of the end zone ended up near the goal line.   A few plays later Mount Anthony tackled a BHS runner in the end zone. The third safety happened when the ball being snapped over the BHS punter and swatted out of the back of the end zone. The last safety happened when the BHS punter dropped the snap and there was a hog pile in the end zone.

The coaches, referees, sportswriters, sportscasters and fans that have called, written or that I have come across all say they are hard pressed to even think of anything close to what everyone concedes must be a state record.

It’s hard to say definitively because of the lack of a central repository for high school football records. Yet it does seem like a pretty good guess.

 Anybody know know anything even close or more?

The Vermont Principals’ Association 2009 field hockey tournament will begin next week. The regular season officially ends Saturday, so here’s a look at the likely top four seeds in each division:

Division I
1. Champlain Valley (14-0)
2. Hartford (12-1-1)
3. South Burlington (12-2)
4. Rutland (10-3)
The favorite? Backed by last season’s title and this fall’s 14-0 record, CVU is the team to beat. Although Hartford, playing its southern schedule, strung together an impressive resume in recording nine shutouts and 40 goals. SBHS can’t be counted out as well.

Division II
1. Otter Valley (12-1-1)
2. U-32 (12-1-1)
3. Windsor (8-6)
4. Milton (7-5-2)
Sleeper? Mount Abraham only mustered a tie during its 14-game season, while playing in the Metro. Case in point: The Eagles lost 1-0 to unbeaten CVU on Friday. MAU could be fashioning a upset bid or two this postseason.

Division III
1. Rice Memorial (10-2-2)
2. Stowe (9-4)
3. Missisquoi (7-5-2)
4. St. Johnsbury (5-8-1)
Champs again? Rice Memorial knocked off Stowe in last year’s title game, claiming its first crown in program history. In 2009, the Green Knights only Div. III blemish is a 1-1 tie against Missisquoi in late September. Both of Rice’s losses were at the hands of Div. II’s U-32.

Note: The official pairings will be released Monday. Check our Web site on Monday afternoon and Tuesday’s print edition for the full field hockey playoff seedings.