I rarely preview games, only because it's a slippery slope - once you start, you have to keep going and preview everything. Trust me.
But because the Montpelier football team is playing on Thursday - thereby missing the weekly football preview our sister paper, The Rutland Herald, does - and because the Solons are such a big story on so many levels this fall, I gotta say something before their Week 6 contest.
The top four teams in Divisions II and III make the playoffs (top eight in Division I), and right now both Montpelier and its Thursday-night-lights opponent, Winooski, are on the outside looking in on the Division III tournament. But both teams are in the front row of viewers.
Montpelier sits in the No. 5 slot while Winooski is a bit further back but still in a good spot in No. 8.
The Solons are 3-2 while the Spartans are 2-3. Both lost last week on the road, but the Solons' loss wasn't as straight forward as it sounds. They were scheduled to play on Thursday against Windsor at Hartford (Windsor's field is trashed from Irene still) - another key matchup in terms of the playoff picture - but that was postponed by rain to Friday. The two teams played all by 8 minutes and change of the game on Friday before a lightning delay eventually suspended the game. They resumed the game at that point later in the weekend, with Montpelier up by five, 39-34. Windsor went on the offensive in the remaining 8-plus minutes to record a comeback victory. The Spartans lost at Mill River.
Add to that the emotional toll on the Solons - both players and coaching staff - from the Week 4 victory over MSJ that saw junior Dylan Mercadante suffer what developed into a horrific injury. I spoke via text with Montpelier coach John Murphy yesterday, asking him about Mercadante's weekend. Murphy replied that Dylan probably had a better weekend than he - Murphy - did, and was finally moved from the ICU at Fletcher Allen to a private room. The Solons will don No. 6s on their jerseys - Dylan's number, sewn on by a football mother prior to the Windsor game - at Thursday's home game against the Spartans.
Montpelier averages 23.4 points per game while giving up an average of 18.2. The Spartans also average a win, putting up an average of 31.4 points while allowing an average of 27.6 points. Both teams will play their last two regular-season games on the road: Montpelier at Mill River and at Oxbow, Winooski at Mount Abraham (which Montpelier beat 13-6 in Week 1) and at BFA-Fairfax (which beat Montpelier 58-28 in Weej 2). The Solons are home against Woodstock next Friday while the Spartans will also spend Week 7 at home on Friday night, against Oxbow.
Both teams recorded big wins over MSJ - their only shared opponent so far. Montpelier won 48-0, like I said above, and Winooski won 51-14.
I will be at the Montpelier-Winooski game Thursday night and will Tweet live updates, so be sure to follow me @annagrearson.
-Anna Grearson
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