Well this isn't how I expected our high school football teams to look headed into Week 3. Sure, Oxbow I expect to do well - they're 1-1 and average a 13-point win, and Montpelier (1-1 with a 12-point loss but playing very well) could only improve, but what is going on with our - recently, anyway - top two teams, Spaulding and U-32?
My friend Mike Crane is a PE teacher and an assistant coach at Mount Abraham, and he recently posted some of his team's stats on Facebook, so it made me curious as to how the rest of the state - and our teams, especially - are stacking up so far.
It wasn't pretty.
D-II U-32 is dead last, not a place the Raiders are used to. Sure, there are growing pains under a new coach, and the new agreement with Harwood may throw a wrench in things, but the coach isn't a bad coach, so, what gives? The Raiders (and the Crimson Tide, but we'll get to them) are one of 10 0-2 teams in the state right now. They average a 54.5-point loss - the worst ratio in the state - and have given up a total of 115 points while scoring just 6.
Spaulding, also 0-2, is not in absolute last in D-I - that prize belongs to Burlington and Essex (which is still quite weird), but still average the second-worst scoring ratio: a 51.5-point loss. They have scored 7 points while watching opponents rack up 110.
U-32 and Spaulding are two of three teams in the state - the other being MSJ - that give up an average of at least 50 points (MSJ gives up 53 per outing).
Neither team meet this fall - which at this point, they would probably welcome. But, Spaulding does face Essex later in the season, which under normal circumstances would be a horrifying idea, at home on Oct. 8. U-32's best chance at a decent game comes twice in two weeks: at home against Bellows Falls Friday, Sept. 30 and home the next Friday (Oct. 7) against Springfield. Both the Terriers and the Cosmos are also winless.
I know it's early, but how realistic is it for these two teams to dig themselves out of such a gaping hole?
-Anna Grearson
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