Cross-country
• The state championship meets are this Saturday at Thetford Academy, and the runners to watch out for are the Bellows Falls' girls.
On Oct. 12 in Langdon, N.H., the BF girls pulled off a feat that hadn't been done since the mid-1980s - they won the Connecticut Valley Conference title.
Back in the 1980s, the Terrrier girls won the CVC title three years in a row between 1983 and 1985, and missed a fourth title in 1986 by just one point to Hanover.
It's a big deal to win a CVC title, for a smaller school like BF has to compete against bigger New Hampshire schools like Keene and Hanover, as well as Marble Valley League rivals like Brattleboro.
But the Terrier girls had what it takes and, as has usually been the case this season, it was the ninth-grade phenoms that led the way.
Abby Broadley covered the Fall Mountain course in 18 minutes, 43 seconds to finish second. Fellow ninth-grader Stephanie Ager took seventh in 19:46. Three other BF runners cracked the top 15: sophomore Abby Dearborn (10th), and seniors Lia Clark (13th) and Jasmine Boucher (14th).
That gave BF 60 points, and that was just enough for victory. Keene was second with 62 and Hanover was third with 65, while Brattleboro was fifth.
The BF girls then earned their second big title this season, the Marble Valley League A Division Championship. The MVL meet was run on the Terriers' home course in Westmister, and the hosts made the most of it by putting again putting five runners in the top 15 to win the meet.
BF finished with 35 points. Brattleboro was second with 73 points, followed by Woodstock (84), Burr & Burton (90), Mount Anthony (119), Thetford (142), and Rutland (159).
Broadley had a personal best time of 18:53 on the BF course. Ager came in third, Clark was fifth, Dearborn was ninth, and Molly Hodsden was 14th for the Terrier girls.
• The Brattleboro girls had a competitive MVL meet. Sarah Gallagher was second, followed Bella Takacs (12th), Alexandra Miskovich (19th), Kathryn Wocell (21st), and Liz Morse (24th).
As for the Colonel boys, they came in third. Finn LaMorder came in sixth in 17:28, followed by teammates Trevor Kipp (10th), Bram Tabachnick (16th), Nolan Holmes (17th), and Evan Koch (20th).
The BF boys were fifth. Ian Wallace came in fifth to lead the Terriers, followed by Timmy Salter-Roy (seveth), Stone Bradbury (25th), Gabe Hakimoglu (26th), and Issac Wilkinson (32nd).
Field hockey
• Bellows Falls wrapped up another undefeated regular season with wins over Burr & Burton and Brattleboro.
On Senior Day in Westminster on Oct. 15, the Terriers beat Burr & Burton, 6-1. In her last regular season home game, Abbe Cravinho scored three goals. Fellow seniors Madison Streeter, Molly Kelly, and Sophie Hyslop scored the other goals.
Seniors Emma Lober and Brigid Hodsden shared the goaltending duties, and combined for three saves. The other BF seniors honored were Megan Banik, Michelle Marchica, Alice Salter-Roy, Madi Joy, Brook Bennett, and Emily Harris.
• Against the Hartford Hurricanes at Tenney Field on Oct. 16, Brattleboro's Kalin Noble took a crossing pass from Gracie Frost and banged in the winning goal in overtime for a 1-0 win.
Natalya Forkin was huge in goal, stopping 15 shots for the Colonels. The victory avenged a 5-0 drubbing at Hartford on Oct. 13.
Football
• • Bellows Falls clinched the No. 3 seed in the Division II playoffs with a dramatic 36-28 win over the U-32 Raiders in East Montpelier on Oct. 20.
With the game tied at 28-all with 80 seconds to play, Terriers quarterback Griffin Waryas lofted a long pass to tight end Dylan Clark, who faked one defender to catch the ball and easily shed a tackler and to glide into the end zone to complete a 52-yard scoring play.
U-32 trailed at halftime, 28-16, but scored twice to tie it up. The Raiders had one last possession after the Waryas-to-Clark strike, but the BF defense forced a fumble to seal the win.
BF finished the regular season at 6-2 and earned the No. 3 seed in the Division II playoffs. They will face No. 6 U-32 (4-4) again this Friday at Hadley Field in a quarterfinal.
• Brattleboro lost the regular season finale to the the BFA-St. Albans Bobwhites at Natowich Field on Oct. 19.
It was a must-win game for the Bobwhites to qualify for the playoffs, but they still got nosed out the No. 8 seed when
The two teams will face each other again this Friday in St. Albans in a Division I consolation game
Boys' soccer
• Twin Valley clinched its third straight Marble Valley League C Division championship on Oct. 16 with a 6-0 rout of Green Mountain.
Jack McHale and Finn Fisher scored two goals each for the Wildcats. Gunnar Nilsen and Colin McHale each added a goal. Both McHales, Dylan Howe, Casey Sibilia, and Lucas Messing all were credited with assists. Goalkeeper Logan Boyd made two saves for his 10th shutout of the season.
• Brattleboro shut out Mount Anthony on Senior Night, 2-0, at Tenney Field on Oct. 16.
Nate Lewis scored the first goal with just 21 seconds left in the first half. After Anthony Piergentili blasted a shot off MAU goalkeeper Jack Rogge, Lewis pounced on the rebound and knocked it in.
Piergentili got the insurance goal in the 57th minute, beating Rogge one-on-one inside the penalty area. Colonels goalkeeper Emmett Dews made six saves to earn the shutout victory.
Dews, Lewis, and Piergentili were among the seniors honored as halftime, along with teammates Josh Nordheim, Elliot Bauer, Jack Price, Ty Allembert, Jackson Buettner, and Forest Zabriski.
• Leland & Gray defeated Otter Valley, 4-2, on Oct. 18, clinching the Marble Valley League's B Division Championship.
Riley Barton had two goals for the Rebels, and Conall Halvey and Nick Tolbert also scored. Goalkeeper Cameron Anderberg made three saves.
A day earlier, the Rebels rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Mill River, 3-2. Barton scored all three goals, while Anderberg finished with four saves.
Senior bowling roundup
• The standings got seriously reshuffled after Week 7 of the fall season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl.
Team 7 (24-11) had a 5-0 week and jumped into first place. Team 2 and Team 4 (both 23-12) are now tied for second place. Team 5 had an 0-5 week and fell from first to a tie for third with Team 10 (both 21-14). Team 8 (20-15) moved up into fourth, followed by Team 1 (18-17), Team 11 (both 17-18), Team 3 (14-21) and Team 6 (8-27).
Lorraine Taylor had the women's high handicap game (264) and Sonya Shippee rolled the women's high handicap series (472). Marty Adams had the men's high handicap game (269) and series (537). Team 10 had the high team handicap game (873), while Team 8 had the high handicap series (2,521).
In scratch scoring, Adams (537), Wayne Randall (537), and Charlie Marchant (531) were the men in the 500-plus club. Adams (258) was the only bowler to top 200, while the women were led by Taylor (193), Shippee (191), and Carole Frizzell (171).