D-II playoffs feature two newcomers
Toolbox
By CHUCK CLARINO RUTLAND HERALD STAFF - Published: November 6, 2009
The Middlebury Tigers and Colchester Lakers met on the first week of the regular season, while the Mount Mansfield Cougars and the CVU RedHawks have never played each other. But these are the four teams that emerged from a scramble and made the Division II playoffs.
The No. 4 Tigers (7-2) will travel to Colchester to take on the top-seeded Lakers (9-0), while the No. 3 RedHawks (8-1) tangle with the second-seeded Cougars (7-2) at Burlington's Buck Hard Field tonight at 7 p.m.
Colchester has been the class of the division from the opening gun. The Lakers defeated the Tigers 28-6 but much has changed since then.
In its first year in Division II after dropping from D-I ranks, Middlebury is winning again. The Tigers suffered hard times since winning the D-I crown in 2002 and last made the playoffs in 2004.
At the season's onset, Middlebury coach Dennis Smith didn't know his competition and he didn't know his young and inexperienced team. But the Tigers have gotten better each week and here they are.
"We had very few seniors and a bunch of young kids," said Smith. "But I knew we were a good team after we played Colchester. We had so many new kids and were trying to find places for them. We didn't know their strengths and weaknesses. But we've played great defense all year … that's the Middlebury way."
What has happened at Middlebury is that the younger kids, especially a core group of sophomores, have stepped up to fill big roles and the team has jelled.
"If nothing else, relish the (playoff) opportunity," Smith told his youngsters. "There weren't many people who thought you'd be in this situation."
Meanwhile, Colchester is a prolific offensive team that outside of a 14-7 win last week against Milton, has rolled up big scores with a high-powered offense that boasts a wide array of weapons. Yet the Lakers are also hungry since being bounced out by Mount Mansfield in their last playoff appearance in 2007.
"What we said this year was that we were going to compete every week, go after one thing at a time and see what happens," said Laker coach Tom Perry. "I don't think any of us thought we'd go undefeated. What we said last week was to enjoy the win (over Milton) for a minute and then move on - everything is in the hands of the kids. As coaches you try to prepare your kids for whatever but you say to them, 'now do something special for yourselves.'"
Smith believes the Tigers are going to have to play their best game. There is no way they can get into a shootout with the Lakers, so they must try to keep the score down and rely on their defense. Can that happen? Well, Middlebury has a way of making teams play ugly.
Perry is a bit concerned about overall health of his team. Injury-wise, the Lakers are in good shape, but the flu bug has swept through the high school.
The other semifinal is intriguing. In its first year in Division II, CVU has shocked the Vermont football community. How many people would have picked a RedHawk team that finished 3-6 last year in Division III and failed to make the playoffs to be close to the top of the standings this fall?
"We're still a little amazed that we've progressed this far this year," said CVU coach Jim Provost. "But the kids took the move up to Division II seriously and prepared themselves. Also, I can't say enough about my staff. I know that every coach says that, but I know one thing; we'll be prepared and we'll be ready to play, and if it doesn't work out for us, it's because Mount Mansfield is better than us."
But not playing a team during the regular season and them meeting them in the playoffs can present a number of problems.
"We watch film of CVU and break it down and pray that you put in the right game plan," said Mount Mansfield coach Marty Richards, whose Cougars have finished runners-up to Spaulding in the last two D-II title games and runner-up the year before that to U-32 in D-IV.
Provost agrees that you have to watch the films and must break them down as you prepare your game plan but that still doesn't account for everything.
"What's scary for us is that we haven't played them, ever," said Provost. "We've seen some film but until you meet them, we really don't know how our kids are going to match up against theirs. We can figure out what they are doing by watching the films but it's the physical aspect of it that you don't know about."
The teams present contrasting offenses.
Richards runs an old-fashioned, double-wing offense that is basically a wing-T style team but with two wings in tight formation. The Cougars use a lot of motion; their linemen pull all over the place and they can chew up yards and the clock.
"Their offense is a pain; there's a lot of moving parts," said Provost. "It's definitely old-school and while everyone is running a spread, they are in a rugby scrum."
"CVU likes to spread you out, run the quarterback, run (isolation) and run I and pro sets," said Richards. "They are a well-disciplined and well-coached team and we're going to have to control the quarterback to be successful."
40