Varsity Insider

The Burlington High School football team’s potent backfield took a major hit during Friday’s loss to undefeated Essex.

Seniors Cooper Wile and Andrew Cane suffered season-ending injuries, leaving a major void for the Seahorses in their playoff quest.

Wile broke his collarbone — a injury he also sustained during lacrosse season in the spring — on the game’s fourth play. The injury ends an out-of-this-world season for Wile, who racked up 14 touchdowns during the Seahorses’ 4-1 start.

Cane, who ran for over 100 yards in Friday’s loss, broke his fibula in his right leg in the fourth quarter.

BHS (4-2) plays host to Mount Anthony before finishing up its season on the road at St. Johnsbury and St. Albans. One year after going winless, BHS has a chance for a playoff spot, but another loss would put a dent in those plans, coach Brennan Carney said.

“We are in a must-win all the way out,” Carney said. “(Friday’s) game we have to win.”

The Essex Hornets and the Burlington Seahorses meet in a pivotal divisional game at Buck Hard Field Friday night.

The high school football game is particularly important to the Seahorses, who at 3-1 in Division I, are on the outside of the playoff seedings, sitting one back of the final spot.

Regardless of their position, there’s still four weeks left and the Seahorses — a year removed from a winless campaign — have built an impressive resume in the last several weeks leading up to playing the state’s top team.

Here’s a look at BHS’ season results:
Week 1: BHS 26, Brattleboro 21
Week 2: Spaulding 28, BHS 21
Week 3: BHS 49, MSJ 6
Week 4: BHS 21, Rice 0
Week 5: BHS 26, SBHS 0
The all-around play of Cooper Wile has BHS averaging 28.6 points per game while holding opponents to 11 points.

As for Essex? What can you say? Call it the Air-Raid offense or The Max Librizzi Show — whatever you want, because this high-flying, no-huddle spread attack has lived up to its pre-season billing.

Here’s a look at the Hornets’ five wins:
Week 1: Essex 54, MMU 12
Week 2: Essex 66, MSJ 8
Week 3: Essex 33, BHS 10
Week 4: Essex 53, Mt. Anthony 7
Week 5: Essex 34, Brattleboro 12
Offense: 48 points per game. Defense: 9.8.

I got a hold of Essex coach Charlie Burnett Thursday evening and he gave me some individual statistics I thought I’d share with Varsity Insider readers.

Through five games:
QB Librizzi – 106 for 170 (62 percent) for 1,573 yards and 25 TDs and 6 INTs.
WRs Pat Nee (23 catches for 374 yards, 7 TDs); Kevin Jenko (25 catches for 325 yards, 4 TDs); Adam Picard (16 catches for 229 yards, 2 TDs).

Will Essex continue its march, storming opponents with its utempo, fast-moving style? Or Will BHS shake up the Division I landscape with an upset victory?

Game time is 7:30 p.m. Be sure to check our Web site and Saturday’s print edition for coverage of this exciting, mid-season matchup.

End zone: Burnett said Jenko’s 11-catch performance in last week’s win over Brattleboro was a school record. Jenko broke Gerry Greene’s 1971 record of 10 catches. … Starting RB Picard is likely back in the lineup after missing last week’s game while David Valley, a backup WR and starting safety is questionable, Burnett said.

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.

We think it is a first for the long-running Burlington Free Press feature “Athlete of the Week.”

We’ve picked a lot of athletes from various sports from the 50 high schools in Northern and Central Vermont through the years.

The weekly nominations come primarily from coaches and sometimes athletic directors based on performances from the week before. While efforts are made to spread the honors around, the feature has a few times even had two student-athletes from the same school.

But the selections of Sierra Tebeau of Colchester field hockey and Cooper Wile of Burlington High football have provided a rare distinction.

They are coached by siblings: Shawn Carney of Colchester and her younger brother Brennan Carney of BHS.

Both Carneys were multi-sport standouts at South Burlington High before Shawn moved on to star at the University of Vermont. Brennan, who helped Vermont post one of its rare wins in the Shrine football game, helped re-write much of the passing record book at Wesleyan University.

I guess the question we should be asking is how many siblings are currently head coaches at Vermont high schools?

Of course the list will include Matt Johnson the BHS boys basketball coach and Glenn Johnson the girls basketball coach at BFA-St. Albans. How many others can you name?