Varsity Insider

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.

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.

Rice Memorial soccer coach St. Ambroise Azagoh-Kouadio, better known as just ”Azzie,” picked up his 100th win when the Green Knights beat Mount Abraham, 7-1, at Bristol on Tuesday.

Azzie, who is starting his 11th season,  has helped direct the Rice girls to a 100-61-4 record during that time.

He almost didn’t make it to this season after some “miscommunication” between the athletic office and the principal last spring.  One week after telling the players the school said it wanted to go “in a new direction,”  Azzie learned he would be retained.

Rice is off to a 3-1 start this year, including a 2-0 win over state Division I runner-up Essex.  We’re not sure how many active coaches in girls soccer are ahead of Azzie, but certainly he has a little way to go to catch Bill O’Neil of Essex.  O’Neil, who coaches three varsity sports, is 330-125-42  in his soccer career.

Who is in between O’Neil and Azzie?   Any ideas?