Windsor
This weekend the preliminaries were completed, as Windsor defeated Poultney-MSJ on Saturday, 47-12, a day after the Wasps downed U-32, 21-6.
Both the Wasps and Yellowjackets are 6-0 in league play heading into next Saturday’s showdown.
Windsor coach Greg Balch said he and his coaches avoided talking about the Woodstock game all week, and didn’t bring it up until the post-game meeting on Saturday.
What the several Woodstock players in the stands saw on Saturday was a Windsor team that rolled out to a 32-0 lead at the half and added two more scores in the final two periods.
Almost all the Windsor wins have been lopsided, making Balch wonder, “why do I leave here each Saturday thinking about all the things we did wrong?”
So who’s the favorite next Saturday?
“I don’t think it’s us,” Balch said.
His feeling for that observation was that while his team is talented, It’s not one of those big and bruising teams.
“We have to play good defense and grind things out, ” he said.
Of course having his senior quarterback son, Seth Balch, run his touchdown total to 24 doesn’t hurt. His three TD passes on Saturday gave him 15 through the air and his two running tallies brought his ground total to nine. And when he was called on to punt — and Windsor rarely has to punt — he kicked the ball out at the 2-yard line.
Poultney-MSJ (1-5) is a team going through growing pains. This is the third season of the co-op team, which has just five seniors. The bulk of the roster is made up of underclassmen with 14 freshmen and 10 sophomores.
“We’re paying the price of our youth,” Poultney-MSJ coach Dave Capman said. “What I like about this team is that it never quit. I think in the long run we’re going to be OK.”
One of his players, junior Mason Hutchins, 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds, got Balch’s attention. “Boy is he a player,” he said. “What a handful.”
The game was played on a humid day that had the fans moving around the grandstand trying to find some shade. What they saw was Windsor score on three of its first four possessions.
Jake Tucker earned the initial score as he darted through a big hole from the 5 to make it 6-0. A short punt set Windsor at its own 47, and the Yellowjackets marched down the field with Seth Balch taking it in from the 9. He also ran for the 2-point conversion and it was 14-0 with 1:57 to go in the first quarter.
After a drive stalled on the Windsor 45, Balch put Poultney-MSJ in a hole when his punt bounced out at the 2. The visitors could not make any progress and punted from deep in its own end zone. Balch made the return to the 1 and took it in from there.
Next was a Balch-to-Dahkota Sanderson strike from the 18 and a Balch run from the 5 to make it 32-0 at the break. The Windsor scores in the second half were both Balch TD passes — one to Sanderson and the other to Tucker.
Poultney-MSJ certainly had its offensive moments in the second half. Jacob Allen, who ran hard all game, carried four times for 34 yards during a third-quarter drive that culminated with quarterback Caden Capman taking it in from the 1.
With time running out, Leo Caranza made a leaping catch of Capman’s pass for the second Poultney-MSJ score.