ADDISON COUNTY — In high school football action this past weekend all three local teams picked up big wins: Middlebury and the Mount Abraham-Vergennes cooperative teams earned road victories, and Otter Valley cruised at home.
The Tigers will seek to move to 3-0 when they host Division I rival Rice at 7 p.m. this Friday. The D-II Eagles will host the now D-III Otters in their homecoming game under the lights on Friday at 7 p.m., with both teams entering with 1-1 marks.
TIGERS
At South Burlington the Tigers spotted the Burlington-South Burlington cooperative team an early touchdown, but took charge to lead by 28-7 at the half on the way to a 49-20 victory. Tyler Buxton’s 82-yard kickoff return for a score, one of his four touchdowns, sparked MUHS.
Buxton finished with 140 yards on nine carries, including TD runs of two, 20 and 59 yards. Ian Ploof ran for 117 yards on eight carries, including a 75-yard scoring run, and he added an 82-yard kickoff return.
Quarterback Tim Goettelmann ran five times for 26 yards finishing three of seven for 42 yards and a TD. The Tigers picked up 358 yards of total offense.
For 0-2 BHS/SB Kai Schmidt carried 19 times for 149 yards, including the opening 53-yard TD run. QB Bassiru Diawara ran eight times for 65, including a 48-yard TD, but the Tigers limited him to four for 11 passing for nine yards.
EAGLES
The Eagles gave first-year Coach Jeff Stein the initial head-coaching victory of his career by topping D-II rival Milton, 22-8. Stein said his defense “played hard and pretty disciplined” in an improved effort.
The Eagles got rushing TDs from Nate Lavoie and Griffin Louer and a 30-yard punt return from Joey Hemingway for another score; Hemingway also picked off a pass.
Eagle QB Adam Mansfield threw for 120 yards and kicked a 34-yard field goal.
Milton (0-2) scored on a TD pass to Evan Tinker from Kayden Burke.
OTTERS
The D-III Otters rolled over defending champion Woodstock, 49-14. Nathaniel Blake returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a TD and swept wide for an 80-yard TD on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. Blake finished with 198 yards on 15 carries as the Otters racked up 418 yards against the rebuilding Wasps.
The OV defense also picked off six Wasp passes and stopped Woodstock four times inside the OV five-yard line on the Wasps’ first possession to stretch a 22-7 halftime lead.
OV QB Alexander Polli hit on 11 of 16 passes for 110 yards and tossed four TDs, two to Chase Passmore, one to Keegan Chadburn, and one to Keevon Parks.
Woodstock (0-2) scored on two TD passes from Trevor White to Corey White.