By Mike Donoghue
Free Press Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, September 22, 2007
COLCHESTER -- The Cougars are for real.
In a battle of Division II unbeatens, Mount Mansfield Union High School rode quarterback Nate Dolan's two touchdown runs and a 38-yard scoring strike from Dolan to Ben Larson to an impressive 19-14 win over Colchester on Friday night.
"We have never been in first place in our history. We've never been 4-0. We've never been the top dog," said Marty Richards, the only head coach in the history of MMU's 4-year- old varsity program.
"It's just a really good feeling. It really is. These boys hung in there and they played a heck of a ball game."
Colchester (3-1) had the ball three times in MMU territory in the final 10 minutes but could not score. A sack by Brendan Trepani halted one drive, and another made it to the 19 before a Brad Collins sack helped stop the Lakers. Cougar Ben Dolan halted Colchester's final drive when he intercepted the ball at the MMU 15 with 1:19 remaining.
Brian Wilcox, a 240-pound bruiser who split time between fullback and tackle, ran over the Colchester defense for much of the night.
"He brings diversity to this team," Richards said. "We can put him on the line and we can put him in the backfield. He's a big boy. He is hard to bring down. He is a good blocker so we can put him on the line and match up with bigger teams like Colchester."
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The Lakers were without explosive back Chris Edwards, who was out with a knee injury, but they got a strong game from his replacement, Kevin Warner. Warner scored on a 4-yard run with 1:04 left in the third and Matt Bouffard added the kick to cut the Cougars' lead to 19-14.
Warner later blocked a punt that Shawn Place recovered to give the Lakers one of their golden fourth-quarter opportunities.
Nate Dolan gave MMU a 6-0 lead on a 2-yard run with 1:28 left in the first period.
CHS quarterback Dan Soons evened the score on an 8-yard run in the second quarter and Bouffard's kick gave the Lakers their only lead, 7-6.
Dolan hit Larson, a senior tight end, for the 38-yard TD on a third-and-5 with 2:10 left before intermission for a 12-7 lead.
With 4:38 left in the third, Dolan scored on 1-yard run and the kick made it 19-7.
Colchester running back Jamie Mumley gave full credit to the Cougars while saying the Lakers were tentative.
"The bottom line is they came in and played strong," he said. "They came in with intensity and we came in soft. We played our worst football we played all year. We had mistakes all over the field. We just couldn't seem to pull it together when we needed it the most."
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