Every so often you’ll see a back have a 200-yard rushing game.
But seeing two teammates eclipse the 200-yard mark in one game is rarefied air. When it happens in the state championship game, that is a memory for a lifetime for the Bellows Falls fans.
State Championship Saturday at South Burlington’s Munson Field created plenty of lasting memories with Colchester, Bellows Falls and Middlebury taking home the prize everyone has been shooting for all season.
Certainly, the rushing games by Bellows Falls teammates Jaden Bazin and Patrick Connors were among the day’s highlights. They both had their 100-yard games in the bank by halftime. Connors finished the day with 264 rushing yards and Bazin with 202.
Connors had four rushing touchdowns and Bazin three to help fuel the Terriers’ 54-20 victory over a Woodstock team that had beaten them during the season.
Connors is a student at Vermont Academy. The Saxtons River prep school dropped football a number of years ago so Connors is able to play football just down the road at BF.
Baseball is the sport the senior will play at Fitchburg State.
“The offensive line is incredible. We owe it to our offensive line,” Connors said.
BISBEE’S VISIT
Bellows Falls coach Bob Lockerby brought the long retired and legendary football coach Bis Bisbee onto the practice field talk to his Terriers on the eve of the game.
Bisbee coached Bellows Falls for 37 years, winning eight state titles and going to 13 championship games before retiring after the 2005 season.
Lockerby said Bisbee’s talk was inspirational.
“It was exactly what I expected it to be. He talked about what it means to be a Purple Gang member,” Lockerby said.
Bringing in people to speak is a BF tradition. Doug MacPhee, who has the press box at Hadley Field named for him, delivers a talk to the Terriers each year before the Springfield game.
The Terriers’ only loss was at Woodstock, a 60-52 shootout on the road.
“We know just what a good team Woodstock is but we didn’t feel that we played very well over there,” Lockerby said.
The Terriers lost 10 seniors including quarterback Declan Lisai, who scored a rushing touchdown, and Connors. Also going out with a bang on Saturday were Stefan James, Reed Hill, Connor Perry, Jake Tostrup, Garrett Haskell, Ben Rumrill, Camden Perry and Colton Colburn.
Bazin returns and will only be a junior next year.
It was the Terriers’ 13th state title.
Oddly Bisbee and Lockerby both went to college in North Carolina — Bisbee to Appalachian State and Lockerby to Elon.
LEFEBVRE SHARP
Colchester quarterback Colton Lefebvre showed an ability to make all the throws. He put a velvet touch on his long passes that enabled receivers to run onto them in stride but also threw some darts into tight coverage for completions during the Lakers’ 27-20 victory over Fair Haven.
“He puts in a lot of work himself and the other players work hard for him,” Colchester coach Tom Perry said. “When you have that kind of talent and you have time to throw… The line works extremely hard for him.”
Lefebvre is a three sport standout for the Lakers with ice hockey and baseball his other sports.
Perry said that originally Lefebvre’s goal was to play college baseball but that he has switched his next-level goal to football.
Perry coaches both football and baseball at Colchester.
CONFIDENT SLATERS
Fair Haven had plenty of confidence entering the D-II title game against Colchester.
“We had a good week of practice. I am confident in our guys,” Fair Haven assistant coach Keith Hier said just before the game.
IN THE BLOOD
While Sam Kyhill was coming up just short in South Burlington, brother Max Kyhill and his Husson University teammates were winning big up in Bangor, Maine, beating Maine Maritime with Max in on four tackles.
Jaden Bazin is the cousin of the country’s leading scorer in college field field hockey, Grace Bazin with 37 goals and nine assists at Keene State.
BACK AGAIN
Middlebury coach Jed Malcolm saw his Tigers beat St. Johnsbury 13-7 for the state title on the 30th anniversary of when he won one as a player at Middlebury.
The Tigers defeated Hartford 14-13 in the 1995 title game.
ALERCIO’S GAME
St. Johnsbury coach Rich Alercio has a reputation as an expert in coaching offensive line play that extends far beyond Vermont. He conducts a popular camp for linemen at St. Johnsbury Academy but also has an annual clinic in New Jersey.
He has had numerous articles published on the topic in coaching journals.
The state championship game was his kind of game with the battle in the trenches fierce throughout the full 48 minutes.
The curtain will be brought down on high school football on Sunday, Nov. 23 with the North-South Senior Game at Norwich University’s Sabine Field.
THANKS, COACH
And thanks to former Vermont high school football coach John Callahan who stood up at a Vermont Interscholastic Football League meeting in Hartford and proposed the idea of State Championship Saturday.
Prior to that, the title games in each division were played at different sites.
Now, a rabid high school football fan can see all three games for the price of one.
Many will cherish the 2025 version, one that had a couple of close, competitive games and a whole lot of spectacular plays and performances.
NOTES: One unusual feature of Munson Field that had people talking was that it has no has marks. Former Woodstock coach Jim McLaughlin pointed out that no hash marks makes it difficult for a defense. … Fair Haven punter Cody Adams was outstanding, twice pinning Colchester inside the five-yard line. … Bellows Falls has heavily favored the run most years for decades and decades whether it has been Bisbee or Lockerby pulling the strings. On a day when Bazin and Connors had their monster games, Bellows Falls graduate Jed Lober was Husson University’s leading rusher with 112 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. … Middlebury’s Riney family was 1-1 on Saturday. While Cooke Riney and his Middlebury teammates were celebrating a state championship, Penn Riney and his Johns Hopkins University teammates were losing their first game of the season, 29-28 in overtime to Franklin & Marshall. Penn and his teammates still received a first-round bye in the NCAA Division III playoffs with their 9-1 record and will meet either Springfield or Cortland in the second round.
